Editorial
| Published date | 01 December 1991 |
| Date | 01 December 1991 |
| DOI | 10.1177/095207679100600301 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
1
EDITORIAL:
New
arrangements
for
recruitment
to
the
British
Civil
Service:
cause
for
concern
The
1990-91
Report
of
the
Civil
Service
Commissioners
deserves
more
attention
than
annual
reports
generally
receive.
It
not
only
reports
on
the
activities
of
the
Commission
for
the
period
from
1
January
1990
to
31
March
1991,
it
also
reports
on
the
important
changes
in
the
Commission
as
a
result
of
the
creation
of
the
Recruitment
and
Assessment
Services
Agency
(RAS),
set
up
as
a
result
of
the
Next
Steps
initiative,
and
in
addition
it
provides
details
of
new
arrangements
and
responsibilities
given
legal
form
in
the
Civil
Service
Order
in
Council
1991
and
the
Diplomatic
Service
Order
in
Council
1991.
Previous
reports
of
the
Commissioners
have
normally
focused
on
appointments
to
the
civil
service
for
which
the
Commissioners
were
responsible
in
the
year
covered
by
the
report.
This
latest
report,
however,
deals
with
matters
which
scholars
and
commentators
are
likely
to
recognise
as
having
important
constitutional
significance.
Moreover,
there
will
be
no
further
reports
comparable
to
the
reports
of
previous
years,
because
the
arrangements
for
recruiting
to
about
95%
of
civil
service
posts
are
no
longer
the
responsibility
of
the
Civil
Service
Commissioners
(except
in
the
broadest
sense
of
the
Commissioners’
legal
duty
to
monitor
the
application
of
the
Minister’s
rules
on
the
practice
of
selection).
In
other
words,
this
Hundred
and
Twenty-Fourth
Report
is
the
last
of
an
important
series
stretching
back
to
the
appointment,
in
1855,
of
the
first
Civil
Service
Commissioners
-
the
most
important
direct
result
of
the
famous
Northcote-Trevelyan
Report
of
1854.
In
terms
of
visual
attractiveness
the
1990-91
Report
is
even
better
than
the
high
standards
of
previous
reports
from
the
1980s.
It
contains
pictures
and
colour
and
is
printed
on
high
quality
paper:
on
each
of
these
criteria
recent
reports
have
been
a
great
contrast
to
reports
from
earlier
years
published
by
Her
Majesty’s
Stationery
Office.
In
terms
of
the
sort
of
information
eagerly
sought
by
social
scientists
and
certain
politicians
interested
in
particular
recruitment
statistics,
the
expected
details
are
still
presented.
Two
highlights
of
such
details
are
that
in
1990
over
45.3%
of
the
candidates
recommended
for
appointment
to
the
grades
of
AT/HEOD
(i.e.
the
open
recruitment
to
the
Home
Civil
Service
of
fast-stream
generalists)
were
educated
at
Oxford
or
Cambridge
Universities.
This
compares
To continue reading
Request your trial