New members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, including the governor of the central bank,will be subject to greater parliamentary scrutiny, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday.
Parliament's Treasury Committee will now get the chance to question all appointed members of the MPC as well as people like the head of the Financial Services Authority before they start their new jobs and assess their qualifications against published criteria laid out by government.
But the committee will have no veto over appointments and as such the move is unlikely to assuage concern that the government of the day could fill the rate-setting committee with sympathetic candidates. "The House of Commons should ... have a bigger role in the selection of key public officials," Brown told parliament.
One of Brown's first moves as finance minister when Labour swept to power in 1997 was to grant independence to the Bank of England and give them the power to set interest rates without interference from government. While the creation of the MPC is largely seen as a success, the government has come under criticism for granting such heavy economic responsibility to an unelected body and having the final say over all appointments.
"These hearings will give the committee a full opportunity to discuss with the appointee their priorities and experience," Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said in a statement. The BoE welcomed the "measures to strengthen the MPC appointment process and the role played by parliamentary hearings.
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