The Civil Service Commission regulates recruitment to the
United Kingdom Civil Service, providing assurance that appointments are on merit after fair and open competition, and hears appeals under the
Civil Service Code. The commission is independent of government and the Civil Service.
The Civil Service Commission was established by Gladstone through an
order in council
An Order in Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom, this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' ...
on 21 May 1855 following the publication of the
Northcote–Trevelyan Report
The Northcote-Trevelyan Report was a document prepared by Stafford H. Northcote (later to be Chancellor of the Exchequer) and C.E. Trevelyan (then Permanent Secretary at the Treasury) about the British Civil Service. Commissioned in 1853 and ...
by
Charles Trevelyan and
Stafford Northcote that advocated the decoupling of appointments of senior civil servants from ministers to ensure the impartiality of the
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
.
Following a report of the
Committee on Standards in Public Life
The Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) is an advisory non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom Government, established by John Major in 1994 to advise the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister on ethical standard ...
, ''"Defining the Boundaries within the Executive: Ministers, special advisers and the permanent Civil Service"'' in 2003, the appointment of the First Civil Service Commissioner is made by Government after consultation with the leaders of the main opposition parties. They are then appointed by the
King
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
under
royal prerogative
The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, Privilege (law), privilege, and immunity recognised in common law (and sometimes in Civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy) as belonging to the monarch, so ...
.
The First Civil Service Commissioner is appointed for a fixed term of five years, although another commissioner may act as an interim First Commissioner when necessary.
Civil Service Code
The Civil Service Code is a set of regulations that govern the conduct of civil servants in the UK.
The regulations are broadly based on the
Seven Principles of Public Life. First introduced in 2006 and later updated in 2015, the code has four main principles that public sector workers must be held accountable to: integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.
List of First Civil Service Commissioners
*Sir
Edward Ryan (1855–75)
*
John Pakington, 1st Baron Hampton (1875–1880)
*
George Byng, Viscount Enfield (later 3rd Earl of Strafford) (1880–88)
*...
*William Courthope (1892–1907)
*
Lord Francis Hervey (1907-1909)
*
Sir Stanley Leathes (1910–1927)
*
Sir Roderick Meiklejohn, KBE CB (1927–1939)
*
Sir Percival Waterfield (1939–1951)
*
Sir Paul Sinker (1951–1954)
*
Laurence Helsby, Baron Helsby (1954–1959)
*
Sir George Mallaby (1959–1964)
*Sir
George Abell (1964-1967)
*John Hunt (1967–1971)
*
K. H. Clucas (1971–1974)
*
Dr Fergus Allen (1974–1981)
*
Angus Fraser (1981–1983)
*Dennis Trevelyan (1983–1989)
*
John Holroyd (1989–1993)
*
Dame Ann Bowtell (1993–1995)
*
Sir Michael Bett (1995–2000)
*
Usha Prashar, Baroness Prashar (2000–2005)
[ ]
*
Janet Paraskeva (2006–2010)
*Mark Addison (2011) (Interim)
*Sir
David Normington (2011–2016)
*
Kathryn Bishop (2016) (Interim)
*
Ian Watmore
Ian Charles Watmore (born 5 July 1958) is a British management consultant and former senior civil servant under three prime ministers, who served from October 2016 to September 2021 as the First Civil Service Commissioner.
Early life and busi ...
(2016–2021)
*Rosie Glazebrook (2021) (Interim)
*
Gisela Stuart
Gisela Stuart, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston (''née'' Gschaider; born 26 November 1955) is a British-German politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Edgbaston from 1997 to 2017. A former member of the La ...
, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston (2022 -
References
Further reading
*
External links
Office of the Civil Service Commissioners
{{Cabinet Office
Civil Service (United Kingdom)
National civil service commissions
1855 establishments in the United Kingdom
Government recruitment