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Chairing competitions for senior appointments

Assurance

The Civil Service Commissioners contribute to the development of an effective and impartial Civil Service by giving an assurance that appointments are made on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.

For recruitment to the most senior grades in the Civil Service the Commissioners play a very active role. A Commissioner will oversee the process and chair the selection panel for all jobs at Senior Civil Service pay bands 2 and 3 and Permanent Secretary appointments where the vacancy is open to applicants outside the Civil Service. There are a small number of jobs in pay band 1 for which recruitment is also overseen by the Commissioners.

Commissioners’ Recruitment Code

For most levels of recruitment outside the top tiers of the Senior Civil Service the Commissioners provide assurance by auditing compliance with our Recruitment Code. We give details of our compliance monitoring process for this year later in this report.

The Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Code interprets for departments and agencies the fundamental principle that selection for appointment must be on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. It gives guidance on how this may be achieved in practice.

Principle

The Commissioners’ role is to protect the principle; the day to day recruitment practices of departments and agencies are for them to determine. Departments are the employers and make the appointments. Our role is to ensure that the principles of selection on merit on the basis of fair and open competition are followed.

The Commissioners have confirmed our support for the greater use of on-line advertising as a positive move in terms of openness and diversity. We will want to be satisfied by comparison to base-line data that there are no unintended consequences to the principles of fairness and openness.

Top 200

As recorded in our annual report last year, Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Head of the Home Civil Service, proposed that the Commissioners’ role in relation to senior appointments should be extended. Sir Gus and the Senior Leadership Committee agreed that the internal process for promoting the most senior civil servants should be put on the same footing as that for external recruitment.

From June 2007 the Civil Service Commissioners have overseen and chaired the process of selection for all of the Top 200 Civil Service posts. This is irrespective of whether these competitions are open to candidates from outside the Civil Service, or are restricted to existing civil servants only, or are restricted just to civil servants already within the recruiting department.

The Civil Service Commissioners now have oversight of competitions for all Top 200 posts and also ensure that a proper process for managed moves, when appropriate, is correctly followed. We believe that there is no conflict between succession planning and the principle of selection on merit through fair and open competition.

The First Civil Service Commissioner also attends the Permanent Secretaries’ Remuneration Committee as an observer.

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