§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many of the individuals appointed by his Department to public positions in the last year were first identified by the public appointments unit. [8541]
§ Mr. Sproat[holding answer 10 December 1996]: Guidance issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments requires that candidates for public appointment are selected from a wide field identified through advertising, executive search, consultation with interested bodies and through the public appointments unit as appropriate.
Over the past year the Department of National Heritage has used all these methods and in addition has set up a central appointments unit to maintain a departmental register of those interested in public office.
The Department of National Heritage does not retain records to enable us to identify which of the appointments made over the past year were candidates first identified by the PAU. However, of the 144 people appointed to this Department's sponsored bodies over the past year, 22 were registered with the PAU.