Exceptions to appointment on merit on the basis of fair and open competition

The Commissioners recognise that in some rare instances department and agencies may have a business need to make appointments without following the principle of selection on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.  The Commissioners remain determined that such exceptions should not undermine this fundamental principle. 

The Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Code (and the Recruitment Principles which replaced it on 1 April 2009) lists a series of exceptions to the principle of selection on merit on the basis of fair and open competition which may sometimes be permitted.  In most cases departments may apply the exceptions themselves.


Exceptions permitted by the Commissioners

The Commissioners may also approve appointments under the provisions of the Orders in Council in circumstances not covered by the Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.

During 2009/10 the Commissioners approved up to 184 appointments as exceptions. These were:

  • 37 extensions of short-term appointments without fair and open competition beyond the usual two years set out in the Recruitment Principles
  • 1 extension of an appointment of an individual with highly specialised skills beyond the usual two years
  • 113 extensions of inward secondments from external organisations beyond the usual two years
  • 4 re-appointments of former civil servants, one of which was for a short period only
  • 29 transfers into the Civil Service; of these 27 were made under flexibilities introduced in 2006 to facilitate transfers from non-departmental public bodies, and 2 were transfers from other public services

The total number of exceptions in 2009/10 represents an increase on the 65 approved by the Commissioners in 2008/09. We are working with our external auditors to test the extent to which the increase in the use of exceptions for the extension of secondments is due to the tighter requirements of our Recruitment Principles which were introduced at the start of the reporting year. 


The adoption of the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles, in April 2009, introduced a new exception to the principle of recruitment on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. This provides for staff at administrative and industrial grades that have been recruited under the exception which allows short term appointments up to two years, to be considered for permanency at or after 12 months of employment. The conversion to permanency must be done on the basis of a fair and objective process which has been approved by the Commissioners and subject to our audit. 


In 2009/10 around 8 departments and agencies approached the Commissioners with proposals to develop processes for the use of this exception. We have approved a number of these proposals.


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