§ Mr. CollinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many appointments he has made to public bodies since 7 June; and how many are in his gift. [15487]
170W
§ Dr. MoonieInformation on the numbers of ministerial appointments to public bodies is included in the Cabinet Office's annual report, "Public Bodies". Copies of this are placed in the Library of the House and the report is published on the Cabinet Office internet website. The next edition of "Public Bodies", which will include numbers of appointments at 31 March 2001, will be published around the end of the year.
Since the current edition of "Public Bodies" was published, the War Pensions Agency (and its 14 public bodies) has transferred to the Ministry of Defence, and we have re-classified two existing committees as non-departmental public bodies (the Nuclear Research Advisory Committee and the Advisory Group on Medical Countermeasures). As a result, MOD currently sponsors 33 non-departmental public bodies, with a total of 423 public appointments. Since 7 June 2001, 31 appointments have been made to these bodies.