Summary of Code cases

The Commissioners dealt with 24 approaches this year requesting appeals under the Civil Service Code. Last year the total was 14.

Appeal Upheld

The Commissioners took one case through to final decision and upheld the appeal.

In this case the Commissioners were asked to consider whether the core value of integrity had been breached, and specifically the requirement to ensure that public money and other resources are used properly and efficiently. The appeal related to the issuing of a press release by a department. The press release related to a book written by an official in the department. The department had no monetary or intellectual property interest in the book.  The Commissioners concluded that there could be circumstances where it was appropriate for a department to issue a press release for a book written by one of its staff, but that the press release in question failed to demonstrate the attributes required to make it appropriate.

The Commissioners upheld the appeal and made recommendations focussed on the policy, process and practice of drafting and approving press releases in these circumstances. We have subsequently received evidence from the department that it has acted upon these recommendations.

Under Investigation

Three appeal requests were received towards the end of the reporting period.  We are in contact with the civil servants who brought these requests to seek further information from each of them to assist our initial assessments.

We will report the outcomes of these appeals in next year’s Annual Report. 

Invalid Appeals

Each year the Commissioners receive a number of approaches requesting investigation of appeals under the Code which on examination do not fall within its scope. 

We received ten approaches that were judged to be about human resources management issues.  The Code does not cover these issues. They are specifically excluded by the explanatory foot-note number six to the 2006 edition.

There were four approaches from people who were not civil servants.  The right of appeal under the Code only applies to civil servants.  If a member of the public wishes to complain about the actions of a department or agency or its civil servants this should in most cases be done through the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman.

There were a further two appeal requests that were judged to be outside of the scope of the Code. One concerned policy formulation and the other the activities of trade union representatives.

Anonymous Approaches

We received two approaches this year that were anonymous.

The Commissioners do not encourage anonymous approaches. Anonymity puts enormous barriers in the way of any successful investigation.  It is difficult to exclude the possibility that an anonymous approach is motivated by malice. And it can be impossible to establish that the appeal request does indeed come from a civil servant.

Insufficient Evidence

The initial assessment of one appeal concluded that there was insufficient evidence to judge if it might be a valid Code appeal. Further information was sought from the appellant, but no evidence to substantiate the claim was provided. The Commissioners concluded that there were no grounds to warrant an investigation.

Departmental Processes (or appeal withdrawn)

One approach was from a civil servant who had raised concerns within their own department.  The department had conducted an investigation but had refused to supply information on the outcome of that investigation.

The Commissioners contacted the department, which then reviewed its decision. On reflection it was decided that the outcome of the internal investigation should be provided to the appellant.