Appointments to public bodies are fraught with issues regarding executive control, politicisation and ministerial accountability

The recent row triggered by the decision of Michael Gove to not re-appoint the Labour Peer Baroness Morgan to a second term as the Chair of Ofsted has been subject to severe criticism, with many observers suggesting that it marks the latest instalment in a systematic purge of non-Conservative figures who head public bodies. In assessing the politics of ministerial appointments and reappointments, Felicity Matthews and Marc Geddes show that appointments to public bodies are fraught with issues regarding executive control, politicisation and ministerial accountability