Report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service (1953‐55)
| Date | 01 June 1956 |
| Published date | 01 June 1956 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1956.tb01488.x |
Report
of
the
Royal
Commission on the
Civil
Service
(1
953-55)
HE
Royal Commission on the Civil Service under the Chairmanship of
T
Sir Raymond Priestley, formerly Vice-Chancellor of Birmingham
University, presented its Report (Cmd.
9613, 6s.
6d.) in November, 1955.
The Priestley Report (as it
will
probably be known) is a lucid and closely
reasoned document. Whatever view may be held of its recommendations,
one should pay tribute to the care and thoroughness with which the
Commission has discharged its task.
TERMS
OF
REFERENCE
The terms of reference of the Priestley Commission were:
‘‘
To consider and to make recommendations
on
certain questions
concerning the conditions of service of civil servants
within
the ambit
of the Civil Service National Whitley Council, viz.
:
(a)
Whether any changes are desirable in the principles which
.
should govern pay; or in the rates of pay at present in force for
the main categories-bearing in mind in this connection the need
for a suitable relationship between the pay of those categories
;
(b)
Whether any changes are desirable in
the
hours
of
work,
arrangements for overtime and remuneration for extra duty, and
annual leave allowances
;
(c)
Whether any changes are desirable within the framework of
the existing superannuation scheme.”
The Commission points out that its terms of reference were drawn
more narrowly than those of the Tomlin Commission (1929-31) in making
no
mention of structure, grading,
fixing
of complements, recruitment,
training and promotion. The Commission found
it
difficult to examine and
advise on the pay rates of an organisation
so
complex as the Civil Service
without the opportunity of making positive proposals
on
these intimately
related matters. The topics referred to the Commission are all matters
within the scope of the Civil Service National Whitley Council. The reader
may, therefore, infer that these were matters
on
which the Government
desired
an
independent view, or on which there had been differences of
opinion between the Staff Associations and Departments and between the
two Sides of the Civil Service National Whitley Council.
PRINCIPLES
OF
PAY-FAIR COMPARISONS
In
the absence (for the most part) of normal commercial considerations
of profit and
loss,
it has always been a matter of son:e difficulty to determine
the principles upon which Civil Service pay should be based. The
Commission grasps
this
nettle firmly under the first of its terms of reference.
It
begins with a careful analysis of the current principles for fixing Civil
187
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