The Political Activities of Civil Servants
| Date | 01 June 1953 |
| Published date | 01 June 1953 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1953.tb01682.x |
The
Political Activities
of
Civil Servants
We are indebted to the Controller
of
H.M.
Stationery Office
for
permission
to publish these extracts
from
‘‘
Political Activities
of
Civil Servants
I’
(Cmd.
8783).
N
1948, following representations from the Staff Side of the Civil Service
I
National Whitley Council about the restrictions on the political activities
of
civil servants, the Labour Government appointed a Committee under the
chairmanship of Mr.
J.
C. Masterman,
O.B.E.,
“to examine the existing
limitations on the political activities (both national and local) which may be
undertaken by civilian Government staffs and to make recommendations as
to any changes which may be desirable in the public interest.”
The Committee were informed that, whilst the Government agreed that
there was a case for investigation, they would be totally opposed to any radical
change in the non-political status of the Civil Service.
At that time the current rules-which had existed for over twenty years
-were as follows
:
Non-industrial Civil Servants
(i) Under an Order in Council of 1927, non-industrial civil servants
.were forbidden to stand for Parliament.
(ii)
There was a Treasury rule of long standing that non-industrial
civil servants were
“
expected to maintain at all times a reserve in political
matters and not to put themselves forward prominently on one side or
the other.”
It
was left to Departments to decide what activities came within
this
general
rule.
The Post Office, alone of the Departments, had specific
rules which defined the
sort
of activity which was banned or permitted.
(iii)
As regards local government,
it
was left to the Head
of
each
Department to determine if, and on what conditions,
“
an officer of his
Department may become a candidate for, or serve on, any local Council,
provided that the duties involved
.
. .
shall not conflict with the officer’s
performance of the duties of his Department.”
Industrial Civil Servants
In certain Departments, in particular the Service Departments,
industrial civil servants were subject to no restrictions whatever as part
of their conditions of employment and (though debarred by law from
sitting in Parliament) were even free to accept adoption as Parliamentary
candidates
;
but other industrial civil servants, while subject to no other
restrictions, were not permitted
td
accept such adoption.
In June, 1949, the Government published the Report of the Masterman
Committee (Cmd. 7718) announcing at the same time that they accepted
the Committee’s recommendations and proposed to put them into immediate
effect.
The essential features of the Committee’s recommendations were
:
(i)
The division of the Civil Service into two parts, consisting on the
one hand of grades whose members were to be free of any restrictions
163
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