The Poverty and Inequality Commission: form, remit and appointments

Form of the Commission

Chair

The central role of the Commission Chair is to provide independent advice to Ministers. Ministers strongly value the independence of the role and wish transparency and openness to be built into Commission meetings from the outset.

The independent Chair will determine who should sit on the Commission.

The Commission Chair has been appointed by Ministers on a two year contract with an option to extend, should both parties agree. The time commitment will be negotiated with the Chair and can be adjusted to reflect their view of the requirements of the role; however, the Chair and the Commissioners will serve the Commission on a part-time basis so this can be accommodated alongside other commitments: in part the expertise of the commissioners comes from the work they undertake in a range of settings. The Chair will be supported by two Deputy Co-Chairs, appointed on a similar basis.

Details of the appointments are available in the Annex.

Commissioners

Ministers' initial preference is that the core Commission will be small, with approximately eight core members appointed. Other expertise could be drafted in as required - for example, for working groups. Membership will draw on a wide talent pool whilst ensuring that it remains strictly politically neutral.

Lived Experience of Poverty

Those with lived experience of poverty will play a key role in the Commission. It is envisaged that at least one Commissioner will have direct experience of poverty and will play a key role.

Wider experience will be embedded within the Commission through a Poverty Experience Panel, learning from experience of a similar model in Glasgow. The exact formation of this will be agreed with the chair, but it is likely that this panel will be used to inform key priorities within work streams and act as sounding board for particular issues and concerns.