Letter from Chairman of the Committee to Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office, 10 December 2009

Thank you for your letter of 30 November, and in particular for taking on board the Committee's concerns in your consideration, together with the Commissioner for Public Appointments, of the process to be followed in the future for appointments to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments.

You note in your letter that you have not found any recommendations about the appointment process in our previous Reports published during this Parliament. I would point you to the recommendation in our report on lobbying, published in January 2009:

"There would be benefit to having an Advisory Committee that was more representative of society at large. Under these circumstances, the Government should consider providing some remuneration to members of the Advisory Committee, and should seek a wider field of applicants than might have been the case in the past."

Our recent recommendations also reflect the effect of the events of the last twelve months on public trust in politicians and those in public life more generally. For obvious reasons, these were not reflected in our earlier reports.