A DH press release reveals that Dame Jo Williams, interim chair of the Care Quality Commission, has been chosen by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley as candidate to become the CQC's permanent chair.

She will now undergo a selection meeting with the Health Select Committee, who will then make a recommendation to the Health Secretary, which he will "carefullly consider" prior to finalising the app[ointment.

The Health Select Committee's public pre-appointment scrutiny hearing and report on the candidate’s suitability for the post is an innovation, representing an increase in their power (as does their proposed right to held the independent commissioning board to account).

The release adds that "Dame Jo Williams is currently the Interim Chair of the Care Quality Commission and Chair of the Prison Reform Trust. She has also from today been appointed to the new Commission on the Funding of Care and Support. From 1992 to 1997 she was Director of Social Services at Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, from 1997 to 2002 she was Director of Social Services at Cheshire County Council and from 2003 to 2008 she was Chief Executive of the Royal Mencap Society. In 2009 she was appointed as a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire County Council."