This is a particularly interesting time for the Civil Service Commissioners as we work towards the reform of the Civil Service while upholding its core values and selecting on merit.

Over the last year, amid some excellent and improving recruitment practice, the Commissioners have identified three areas of concern: salaries awarded; diversity in appointments made; and the results of our monitoring compliance with the Recruitment Code.

Our concerns are these:

• Salaries awarded to the successful candidates for the 90 external competitions we chaired did not always match those advertised. Notably the salaries offered to external candidates from the private sector or wider public service were sometimes considerably in excess of those quoted. When appointing Civil Service candidates it was not uncommon for salaries to be less than the advertised rate. The Commissioners are concerned about the fairness, openness and equity of this and we shall be monitoring the position carefully.

• Out of the 90 senior appointments we approved in 2006/07, only 24 (27 per cent) of the successful candidates were women. This is a decline from last year’s figure of 31 per cent, and we shall be carefully monitoring patterns in future years.
  
• The number of departments and agencies assessed as having a high risk of non-compliance against the Recruitment Code went from nine in the previous year to 15 last year.

During the year, Commissioners gave evidence to the Public Administration Select Committee during the year for its inquiry, Politics and Administration: Ministers and Civil Servants. We support their recommendation that the doctrine of ministerial accountability needs to be reviewed, but not their recommendation that Ministers should be offered a greater say in the appointment of civil servants. Ministerial preference or choice could leave the Service open to allegations of political affiliation or manipulation.

And we have developed a new strategy for the next four years, a summary of which is set out in the report.

We need to continue to strive to be an exemplary regulator ensuring that all appointments are made on merit and preserving the political impartiality of the Civil Service.

We need to work with departments to promote the core values of the Civil Service, as set out in the Civil Service Code, so that these are known and

properly understood by all civil servants. We need to strengthen our audit role on appeals so we can give an assurance to the public that departments and agencies are upholding the core values.

To help us achieve this, I am pleased to welcome seven new Commissioners who joined us earlier this year. "Who we are" gives details of the new Commissioners. The range of experience they have will bring new insight and expertise to our team, and complement our existing strengths.

My great thanks go to those Commissioners who have stepped down during the year, or are just about to do so: Sir David Bell, Peter Bounds, Bronwen Curtis, Hamish Hamill, Alastair Macdonald and Maggie Semple. Their help and support to me as First Commissioner have been invaluable.

Janet Paraskeva
First Civil Service Commissioner