Six years ago, the TaxPayers’ Alliance reported that “in the last year, five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories”.
Since then, the figures have varied, and some Conservative members or supporters have been selected to fill important posts.
Nonetheless, it remains the case that, since it took office in 2010, our Party has punched beneath its weight when it comes to public appointments. One of the reasons seems to be that Tories simply don’t apply in the same number as Labour supporters.
To help remedy this, every week we put up links to some of the main public appointments vacancies, so that qualified Conservatives might be aware of the opportunities presented.
– – – – – – – – – –
Ofqual – Board Member
“Ofqual wishes to recruit up to five, high calibre individuals to the Board. We are looking to appoint at least one in each of the following areas: assessment and qualification design, regulation, finance and apprenticeships. You will be expected to support Ofqual’s aims and objectives and act as ambassadors for the organisation. We are looking for independent thinkers who will offer challenge and guidance to Ofqual’s executive to support their decision making. We seek applicants who have significant experience and expertise to bring to Board discussions and are committed to driving forward the work of the organisation. You will have: the ability to think strategically and to contribute to strategic development in different organisational contexts; the ability to build effective relationships at senior levels and/or between organisations; and the ability to support and provide challenge to Ofqual’s executive on both strategy policy and organisational matters.”
Time: Up to 20 days per annum.
Remuneration: £6,000 per annum.
Closes: 14 March
– – – – – – – – – –
HM Treasury – National Infrastructure Design Group
“The National Infrastructure Commission is recruiting for a National Infrastructure Design Group to advise on how best to embed design into the culture of infrastructure planning, to save money, reduce risk, add value, support environmental net gain and create a legacy that looks good and works well. We are seeking up to five Group members with relevant infrastructure and design expertise to contribute to the Group to ensure quality design in future infrastructure and to support the implementation of the recommendations on design made in the National Infrastructure Assessment. The Group will be chaired by Professor Sadie Morgan and will meet formally four times a year.”
Time: Four half-day meetings per annum.
Remuneration: £500 per diem, plus ‘reasonable expenses’.
Closes: 15 March
– – – – – – – – – –
Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership – Chair
“As our new Chair you’ll certainly be kept busy. You’ll lead us through the next stage of our development. This will include working through and shaping a new future following the LEP review, introducing a Local Industrial Strategy, embedding new relationships, engaging across the County, harnessing all the strengths of a high calibre private sector led Board, bringing us a national profile and ensuring a relentless focus on delivery. You’ll serve all of Lancashire and every sector, visible to our 52,000 businesses and 1.5m people. You’ll see the big picture, understand what makes our economy tick and what’s needed to accelerate growth. With deep private sector experience, you’ll be relentlessly commercial, but understand that real cross-sector partnerships create strong foundations for success.”
Time: Five days per month “when aggregated”.
Remuneration: “Some flexibility dependent on candidate-specific circumstances”.
Closes: 22 March
– – – – – – – – – –
Public Weather Service Customer Group – Chair
“The Public Weather Service Customer Group (PWSCG) is an independent body which acts as the customer on behalf of the public and public sector users of the Public Weather Service (PWS). It provides independent advice to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to enable the formal agreement of the PWS Customer-Supplier Agreement (CSA) between Government and the Met Office. It is responsible for defining the outputs required from the Met Office and holding them to account for delivering to a satisfactory level. The funding for the PWS is currently around £120M per annum, of which £100M is paid by BEIS. The PWS provides a coherent range of weather information and weather-related warnings that enable the UK public and professional bodies to make informed decisions in their day-to-day activities, to optimise or mitigate against the impact of the weather, and to contribute to the protection of life, property and basic infrastructure.”
Time: 54 days per annum.
Remuneration: Up to £20,000 per annum.
Closes: 24 March
– – – – – – – – – –
Food Standards Agency – Deputy Chair
“Ministers are looking to appoint a Deputy Chair and three Non-Executive Members to the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The statutory role of the FSA is to protect the health of the public and the interests of consumers in relation to food. As a Member of the FSA you will be responsible for ensuring the organisation discharges its statutory duties. You will also set and reinforce the FSA’s core values through the development and monitoring of strategic objectives, plans and policies. In addition to the responsibilities of a Board member, the Deputy Chair will deputise as necessary for the Chair over the full range of their responsibilities and act as a conduit between the Board members and the Chair, facilitating effective communication of consensus and opinions.”
Time: 35 days per annum.
Remuneration: £13,900 per annum.
Closes: 25 March
– – – – – – – – – –
Homes England – Board Member
“We are the Government’s housing accelerator with a mandate to use our land, money, powers and influence to increase the pace, scale and quality of new homes being built in areas of the greatest demand, creating great places to live across the country. We have an ambitious growth programme in place. Over the next few years, we will invest more than £27bn to help meet the Government’s ambition to deliver 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. We also operate as a mortgage lender through the delivery of our Help to Buy product. We are working to build a different kind of public service. We must be bold, creative and ‘think big’ to make a true difference to one of the most defining issues of our time. We now seek to appoint four commercial leaders to join our dynamic and ambitious Board at a critical time of our evolution.”
Time: ~24 hours per month.
Remuneration: £25,000 per annum.
Closes: 26 March
– – – – – – – – – –
Sport England – Trustees
“We are keen to recruit new people to strengthen and broaden the skills of the Board to drive Sport England forward. As a member of the Board you will share responsibility for the overall direction, vision and strategy of Sport England. We are looking for candidates who can bring innovative ideas, enthusiasm for our values, and excellent judgment to help deliver our objectives. You will be prepared to assist our organisation in taking on any future challenges and play a key role in our success. The successful candidates will have held a position of responsibility in either the public, voluntary or private sectors and will have ability, at a senior level, in one or more of the following areas…”
Time: At least seven meetings per annum.
Remuneration: £218 per diem plus ‘reasonable expenses’.
Closes: 10 April
– – – – – – – – – –
Department for Transport – General Aviation Champion
“Ensuring the department is able to effectively take into account the specific needs of the GA sector by: collating and distilling for the Minister the views of the private and commercial General Aviation sectors (the GA sector) on the impacts of policies of relevance to them, indicating how much support various propositions have across the sector and where that support is located; undertaking visits and holding meetings with GA stakeholders wishing to make a case to the government for policy change or stability and to summarise for the Minister the features and findings of these events; assisting the GA sector in prioritising its concerns, setting them out in detail and with rigour and putting them into a wider context of government policy; [and] working with the GA sector to help it to present its position to a range of relevant government departments and to capitalise on interactions with and feedback offered by those departments.”
Time: Two days per month.
Remuneration: £350 per diem.
Closes: 19 April