Interviews to select the new chair of Ofcom are due to start next week after the government admitted it had finally “exhausted” the hunt for potential candidates, almost two years after the process began.
The search to replace Terry Burns at the telecoms, media and postal regulator started in early 2020 when Lord Burns announced he was to stand down, and a successor was expected to be found by the end of that year, after the appointment of Melanie Dawes as Ofcom’s new chief executive.
However, the process has been dogged by delays after Boris Johnson’s unsuccessful attempt to install Paul Dacre to push a more rightwing agenda at the body. The former editor of the Daily Mail unexpectedly failed the interview process the first time around. Ministers cleared the way for him to try again, only for Dacre to withdraw his application.
The government had to abandon and restart the process, and the “partygate” investigator and Whitehall fixer Sue Gray was put in charge of the interview panel.
On Monday Julian Knight, the chair of the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee – who has called the process a “shambles” – said the government had refused to tell him how many applications had been received and how many candidates were being considered for the shortlist.
“Another week, another new instalment of suspense in the ridiculous soap opera that is the race to become Ofcom’s new chair,” he said. “The committee is not after a behind-the-scenes commentary on the appointment process, but this latest cliffhanger from the DCMS department – which cannot or will not even tell us how many people have applied to audition for the starring role – does make you wonder whether we are heading for a happy ending.”
In a letter of response, the permanent secretary at the DCMS, Sarah Healey, told Knight that the government did not want to “increase speculation on the process” and aimed to “minimise media speculation”.
“We will not be providing a running commentary on candidate numbers,” she said, adding that this information would be made public as part of the successful candidate’s pre-appointment hearing.
The government’s second run at appointing Dacre with a new-look interview panel came unstuck in December when he unexpectedly pulled out of the process, days later announcing he had taken a new role back at the publisher of the Daily Mail.
In January the government reopened applications again for a week, closing on 2 February, and the former ITV, Channel 4 and BBC executive Michael Grade said he had thrown his “hat in the ring”.
On Monday Healey claimed the reopening for one more round of applications was to make sure that all potential candidates had been given a chance to apply, given the Christmas break, and the recruitment advisers Saxton Bampfylde had “done all possible outreach”.
“We are now confident that we have exhausted all possible opportunities to ensure the breadth and diversity of the candidate pool,” she said. “The campaign is progressing to interviews over the coming week. And we hope to be able to announce a preferred candidate in the near future.”
Knight said: “Anyone who has been following this long drawn-out saga will know that feeling of exhaustion all too well.”
