Public Appointments

What are Public Appointments?

Public Appointments are typically Ministerial appointments of non-executive Chairs and Board members to the Public Bodies, sometimes known as Arm’s Length Bodies (ALB), sponsored by the Department for Transport (DfT). These bodies play a vital role in delivering public services.

Non-Executive appointees to the boards of DfT’s ALBs play a crucial role in providing leadership, direction, and challenge – this includes setting the organisation’s strategy, holding senior staff to account – this includes holding managers to account, representing the work and views of the body – this might be to ministers, parliamentarians, key stakeholders.

What we look for in Public Appointees

Non-Executive Director or Chair roles on one of the DfT’s ALBs require a range of skills depending on the role for example leadership, strategic thinking, governance, financial, communications and for some roles technical knowledge.

We want to ensure the leadership of our public bodies reflects the communities that they represent. We are keen to encourage applications from across the UK, from minority ethnic candidates, female candidates, candidates with a disability and candidates with other protected characteristics.

Announcements

Date posted
19/01/2026

Type
Vacancy

Company/Body description
The Department for Transport (DfT) is inviting applications for five new members of their Science Advisory Council (SAC) – a committee of academic and industry experts who provide independent, strategic advice and challenge to the Department on science and technology issues.

Role description
DfT are looking for five new members who have expertise in one of the following specific technical areas relevant to transport, together with the broader skills to contribute effectively across all SAC activities.

Social and behavioural research
Environment, ecology and land-use
Data, digital and telecommunications
Position, Navigation and Timing
Transport energy systems, including hydrogen and/or other alternative fuels
Transport risk, resilience and/or security research
User-Centred Design

Point of contact / where to apply
To apply, please submit:
– A CV (max two pages, font size 11)
– A Statement of Suitability (max 750 words) showing how you meet the essential criteria
– A completed Supporting Information Form (download below)

Supporting Information Form

– Send applications to [email protected] with the subject line “SAC member application.”
– For questions about the process or if you need additional assistance, email: [email protected]
– For an informal discussion with a senior DfT official, contact: [email protected]

Deadline to apply
Midnight Sunday 8 February 2026

Date posted
19/01/2026

Type
Vacancy

Company/Body description
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) plays a vital role in making Britain’s roads safe, ensuring that every motorist meets the required medical standards for fitness to drive. We actively work with the Honorary Medical Advisory Panels to set the medical standards and shape policy and guidelines for over 50 million driving licence holders.

Role description
Member of the Secretary of State Honorary Medical Advisory Panel helping to maintain and improve road safety by providing the Secretary of State for Transport, the Department for Transport and the DVLA with expert advice about a wide range of medical conditions and their impact on driving. We are recruiting for both expert and lay members across all six of our panels and would love to hear from you if you want to contribute towards keeping Britain’s roads safe.

Point of contact / where to apply

You can submit your completed application form to: [email protected]

Deadline to apply
6 February 2026

How to Become a Non-Executive Director

As with all public appointments, our vacancies are advertised on the HM Government Public Appointments Website. Depending on the role the process can vary and take time.

Application

You will usually be required to submit a CV along with a supporting statement, or a similar process, detailing how you meet the advertised criteria.

At this stage, you will also be asked to complete a form detailing any potential conflict of interest you might have because of other roles and how you propose to manage them.
Shortlist

You will receive an acknowledgement of your application. A selection panel will assess your application against the published criteria and then make a recommendation to ministers.

The selection panels, generally consist of:

The Chair of the body, a Senior Civil Servant from DfT
An Independent Panel Member
Panel make-up varies depending on the role, e.g., Chair roles will often include an additional independent person and may include a Senior Independent Panel Member)

Once Ministers make their decision, shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview and those not shortlisted will be informed of the outcome.
Due Diligence

Due diligence is an important part of the public appointments process. The DfT Public Appointments Team performs due diligence checks on candidates, beginning with those who are shortlisted and continuing through the process until an appointment is made. Despite acting independently, public bodies are still representative of HM Government.

This means that in order to uphold the reputation of the Public Body, the Department for Transport and HM Government, all appointees must abide by the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies and the Seven Principles of Public Life
Interview

You will be invited to attend an interview with the selection panel in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the advertised criteria.  The selection panel will then make a recommendation to ministers with all the appointable candidates.

Ministers will then reach a decision on who they wish to appoint. Minister may request a meeting with each of the appointable candidates to help inform their final decision. Some appointments require the Prime Minister’s approval and will be sent to officials at No.10 at this stage.
Outcome

All candidates will be notified as soon as possible after the Ministers have made their decision, regardless of the outcome. Feedback is available on request.

Hear from the NEDs

Ready to Apply? View Current DfT Public Appointment Vacancies

To find the latest DfT Public Appointment positions, simply follow the link below and adjust your ‘Sponsor Department’ preference to Department for Transport

Apply for DfT Public Appointments

Top tips: applying for public appointments

Hear more about applying for public appointments

Diversity and Inclusion

Public appointments are for everyone.

As part of the Department for Transport’s commitment to diversity, we believe that our public appointments should reflect our customers – the travelling public – who come from all walks of life and have different experiences and backgrounds.

We very much welcome fresh talent, expertise, and perspectives, to help us better understand the needs of the communities and diverse society that we serve and to support better decision-making for all. This includes people who may have never applied for a public appointment before – but could bring a diversity of thought, new ideas, insights, and energy.

We want to ensure that people are at the heart of our policies and that everyone flourishes in public service. If you are interested in applying for one of our public appointments, we would love to hear from you.

Independent Panel Members

DfT is always looking to expand our Independent Panel Member pool to increase the diversity of panel members for Public Appointments. Watch the video below to get an idea of the skills required to be an IPM.

If you have experience of sitting on an interview panel or similar, please send us some details of your experience in this field initially, along with your CV to the following email address: [email protected].

If you are selected to remain on our list, please can you also confirm your consent for us to hold your details (name, email address and CV) on file. You also have the right to request at any time for your personal data to be deleted from our records. You will be contacted once a year for any update or if you wish to continue for DfT Public Appointments to retain your details on file.

We will be in contact when a campaign where your skills and experience are suitable.

DfT’s Public Bodies

A public body is generally thought of as an organisation that delivers a public service, is not a government department and operates to a greater or lesser extent at arm’s length from Ministers.

DfT ministers make appointments to 24 public bodies, with all the vacancies advertised on the HM Government Public Appointments Website. Appointments are subject to a fair, open and transparent recruitment process that is overseen and scrutinised by the independent Office for the Commissioner for Public Appointments (Commissioner for Public Appointments), where regulated.

The role of the Commissioner, as set out in legislation, is to monitor how appointments are made, make sure these comply with the Governance Code for Public Appointments and investigate complaints or issues where these arise.