There has been some buzz about over the last week that Gordon Brown would change the way senior officials at regulators such as Ofcom are appointed. Yesterday, No. 10 set forth those proposals in a document entitled The Governance of Britain, available here. The document says in relevant part:

It therefore proposes that the Government nominee for key positions such as those listed below should be subject to a pre-appointment hearing with the relevant select committee. The hearing would be non-binding, but in the light of the report from the committee, Ministers would decide whether to proceed. The hearings would cover issues such as the candidate’s suitability for the role, his or her key priorities, and the process used in selection.

But for regulators like Ofcom a slightly different process is approved:

For market-sensitive and certain other appointments, including the Governor and the two Deputy Governors of the Bank of England, the Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, and some utility regulators, there is a particular set of issues around confirmation hearings. But the Government does believe that it is important to ensure greater accountability than currently exists. So, for these positions, once the appointment has been approved, the relevant select committee will be invited to convene a hearing with the nominee before he or she takes up post. The relevant department will consult with the select committee as to what such hearings might usefully cover.

My take: This really isn’t much of an increase in the power of Parliament over the appointment key public officials. It looks like Ofcom’s leadership would still be appointed by the Secretary of State and the select committees would only get to question — and not reject — the candidate after the fact. The select committees have that power already.

So Parliament can have its say, but it’s not clear that anyone will listen…