- Home
- Letter from the First Civil Service Commissioner
- Our role as Regulators
- Timeline of the year
- Commissioners' Recruitment Principles
- Regulating Appointment on Merit
- Helping to promote the Civil Service Values
- Upholding the Civil Service Values
- Constitutional Renewal Bill
- Progress against strategy
- Links with others
- Meet the Commissioners
- Appendices
Constitutional Renewal Bill
The importance of Civil Service legislation
In our last report the Commissioners were pleased to welcome the Government’s publication of the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill. The Commissioners have long believed that it is right that the core values of the Civil Service and the principle of recruitment on merit on the basis of fair and open competition should be placed on a statutory footing. We looked forward to a busy year contributing to the debate around the legislation as it made its way through Parliament.
There has indeed been debate and scrutiny but this has not yet resulted in the introduction of the Bill. In our response to the Queen’s speech in December, we noted the government’s continued intention to bring forward legislation but without any specific commitment within the outlined legislative programme. We noted that a great deal of work had gone into consideration of the draft legislation and that it had received cross party support. We urged its rapid introduction. We are pleased therefore to see that in the draft legislative programme, published in June 2009, the Government indicated its intention to introduce the Constitutional Renewal Bill before the end of the current Parliamentary session.