{"id":50403,"date":"2014-11-18T12:18:30","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T12:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=3d1fc1d4a2cc9bc442f1c374b5035add"},"modified":"2014-11-18T12:18:30","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T12:18:30","slug":"news-story-preferred-candidate-for-service-complaints-commissioner-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=50403","title":{"rendered":"News story: Preferred candidate for Service Complaints Commissioner announced"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Nicola Williams, the current Complaints Commissioner for the Cayman Islands, has been selected as the government\u2019s preferred candidate for the post of Service Complaints Commissioner (SCC<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n

The role of the SCC<\/abbr> was established by the Armed Forces Act 2006, as part of a service complaints system which came into effect from 1 January 2008. <\/p>\n

The complaints system allows a member of the UK Armed Forces to make a complaint if he or she thinks themselves wronged in a matter relating to their service. <\/p>\n

Ms Williams was selected following open competition and a rigorous selection process which was chaired by an independent assessor from the Commissioner for Public Appointments. <\/p>\n

The recruitment process was conducted in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies.<\/p>\n

Minister of State for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans Anna Soubry has invited the House of Commons Defence Committee to hold a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the announcement, Anna Soubry said:<\/p>\n

\n

Nicola Williams is an excellent candidate for this post and I have no doubt she will ensure the armed forces complaints process is working fairly, efficiently and effectively.<\/p>\n

The MOD<\/abbr> is currently taking a Bill through Parliament to strengthen the role of the Service Complaints Commissioner into that of an Ombudsman.<\/p>\n

This will add a powerful, independent voice to the armed forces complaints handling system and ensure all our personnel can have the confidence to raise matters of concern.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Pre-appointment hearings enable select committees to take evidence from preferred candidates for major public appointments before they are appointed. <\/p>\n

Hearings are in public and involve the select committee publishing a report setting out their views on the candidate\u2019s suitability for the post. <\/p>\n

Pre-appointment hearings are non-binding but Ministers will consider the committee\u2019s views before deciding whether to proceed with an appointment.<\/p>\n

All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. <\/p>\n

In accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees\u2019 political activity (if any declared) to be made public. <\/p>\n

Nicola Williams has declared that she has undertaken no political activity in the past 5 years.<\/p>\n

Biography<\/h2>\n

Nicola Williams has since 2009, held the post of the Complaints Commissioner for the Cayman Islands, with a remit that extends over 93 government entities. <\/p>\n

Since 2009 she has also been a Crown Court Recorder sitting on the London and South Eastern Circuit. <\/p>\n

Between 2004 and 2009 she was a Commissioner at the Independent Police Complaints Commission with particular responsibility for Kent, Sussex, the Ministry of Defence Police and part of the Metropolitan Police. <\/p>\n

She had previously been a board member at the Police Complaints authority. Between 1985 and 2001 she was a barrister in private practice and specialised in criminal law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ministry of Defence today announced the Government\u2019s preferred candidate to succeed Dr Susan Atkins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}