Sleight of Hand?

More trouble over pre-appointment hearings. In a combative session yesterday with Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Education, the Children, Schools and Families Committee returned to the issue of pre-appointment hearings (see the earlier post on this blog). This time it was over the lack of an opportunity to hold a pre-appointment hearing at all for the new Chair and Chief Regulator of Ofqual. Or at least, not really new, according to Ed Balls, because Kathleen Tattersall was appointed as Head of the shadow Ofqual back in 2008 before the system of pre-appointment hearings was introduced and has simply been re-appointed now that the relevant legislation has been passed and Ofqual has a legal status. It would not be fair, apparently, on her or on the organisation to call her appointment into question now with a pre-appointment hearing.

Sleight of hand to avoid giving the Committee a chance to question Ms Tattersall? Well, it certainly seemed like it to the Committee, in spite of the conviction with which Ed Balls put his argument across. Barry Sheerman, the Chairman, used that very phrase. The Committee's conclusions on the Children's Commissioner were ignored, and now they have been "cheated" (the Chairman's word again) of a hearing with the Head of Ofqual. Ed Balls asserted that he was very much in favour of pre-appointment hearings, but the Committee were paying more attention I fancy to his deeds rather than his words. Barry Sheerman questioned the point of giving Select Committees the power to conduct pre-appointment hearings if their enquiries were blocked and sidestepped.

It is the same issue which has arisen on the Wright report (see the last post on this blog). The government say they support reform, but their inaction means backbenchers are very far from convinced that they really want to see any shift in the balance of power between Parliament and Executive.