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Power to initiate investigations

There is one issue which the Commissioners have considered in some detail and at some length: the right of the Commissioners to initiate and carry out investigations under the Civil Service Code without first receiving an appeal from a civil servant. This does not figure in the Bill. It did figure in an earlier draft Bill of November 2004. At that time, the Commissioners supported the proposal. We did so because we felt too few civil servants were aware of the Civil Service Code. We were also concerned that civil servants might be constrained from pursuing issues for fear of the impact on their careers. We therefore had limited confidence in a mechanism which relied on individual civil servants taking the initiative.

We have reflected on this for a number of reasons. Following the re-launch of the Code in 2006, civil servants are undoubtedly more aware of the core values of the Civil Service and the Code. We explain elsewhere in this report that there has been a significant increase in the number of valid appeals to the Commissioners under the Code. We also report an increased number of issues reported from departments and agencies. We believe that the work we have done with departments to raise awareness of the Code and Civil Service values has been successful.

Taking these factors into account, we expect the number of appeals to go up, and we have seen signs that this is happening. We take the view that it must be better if civil servants feel able to raise issues in departments and then with us if necessary. This should help to prevent things going wrong in the first place. This is better than for us to look at problems afterwards. We also remain concerned that if the Commissioners had the formal power to initiate inquiries under the Code we might be swamped by disgruntled customers of the departments, members of the public or the media asking for investigations. Many of these could well turn out not to be Code matters. The resource implications could be significant. There would be a risk that the Commission would be diverted from its core tasks.

We do, though, recognise there will be occasions in which it would be right for the Commissioners to carry out an investigation, if there were prima facie evidence of a significant breach of the Code. We believe the best position is that the Commissioners have reserved powers to investigate concerns without being required to first receive an appeal from a civil servant. The Commissioners would be under no obligation to investigate issues brought to us by those not in the Civil Service. However, if the Commissioners felt that there were valid concerns about major issues where a substantial breach of the Code and the Civil Service values was suspected, then we would have the discretion to initiate an investigation. This would align our powers to investigate under the Civil Service Code more closely to our powers to investigate under the ‘Recruitment Principles’.