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Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I wish to raise two points and ask two questions about the schedule. Both points relate to the independence of the commission and both were raised by either the Joint Committee or the Public Administration Committee in their deliberations on the Bill. The first point is about the power of the Government—in this case, presumably the Minister for the Civil Service—over the commission's budget. Can this Minister explain what the procedure will be for setting the commission's budget? Will the Government of the day—the Minister for the Civil Service, in particular—have the power to set conditions on the way in which that budget is spent or to limit the content of the commission's activities using a budgetary mechanism? If that is the case—some concern was expressed on this point by the two Committees—that will, of itself, undermine the commission's independence. The second point relates to the appointment of the first commissioner, which is obviously an important matter. I understand that the Bill says that the first commissioner is appointed by the Government, after consultation with various other people. A proposal was made—I believe by the Public Administration Committee—that as that was not enough to ensure the independence of the first commissioner, the appointment should be subject to the agreement of someone outside government; one suggestion was that the agreement of the Leader of the Opposition should be required in order to ensure the complete independence of the first commissioner. I have not heard from the Government as to why they rejected that particular proposal, and I wish to ensure that the Civil Service Commission should be as independent as possible.