MPs are to be given a bigger role in scrutinising the choice of future heads of the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS), after the Treasury has signalled it has had a change of heart on the issue
Andrew Tyrie, chair of the Treasury select committee, has long campaigned for MPs to be able to quiz candidates for the positions of OTS chair and tax director, in the same way as they have the ability to scrutinise the appointment of the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) before the candidate is formally in place, arguing that this will strengthen the body’s independence.
The previous Chancellor, George Osborne, turned down the request on the grounds it was not ‘proportionate to the function of the OTS’. Earlier this summer Tyrie took up the battle again and wrote to the new Chancellor, Philip Hammond, challenging his predecessor’s decision not to give the committee the right of veto over the appointments of the OTS chair and tax director.
Now Jane Ellison, finance secretary to the Treasury, has responded telling Tyrie that in future, appointments to the chair of the OTS will be made in such a way that the select committee will be able to hold a hearing after the appointment is announced but before it is formalised.
Ellison writes: ‘Should the Treasury select committee recommend in its report that the appointment be put as a motion to the whole house, the government will make time for this motion and respect the decision of the House.’
The OTS is currently in the process of being put on a statutory footing. Ellison said the new arrangements will not apply when the current OTS chair, Angela Knight, is appointed to the new statutory OTS, but will be applicable to all future chair appointments.
At the beginning of this year Knight endured a stormy session of the Treasury select committee answering questions about her appointment as the new OTS chair. Previously chief executive of the British Banking Association over the period 2007 to 2012, she found herself repeatedly saying ‘sorry’ to the committee over her lobbying during the financial crisis and the Libor scandal. MPs suggested her previous role meant she had a ‘credibility problem’ and also raised questions about her limited knowledge of tax issues.
Ellison’s letter on OTS is here
