THE ENGLISH CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

Evening Star, Issue 15513, 8 June 1914, Page 5

THE ENGLISH CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

RECOMMEND THE ABOLITION OF ALL PATRONAGE. Some 60,000 Civil servants in Great Britain are interested in the report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, which has just been issued. The Commissioners are not unanimous. Sixteen, including Lord MacDonnell (the chairman), the Duke of Devonshire, the Bishop of Southwark, Sir Kenneth Muir Mackenzie, Mr Philip Snowden, Mr Graham Wallis, and Mis 3 Haldane, have signed the majority report, though they all indulge in some reservations. The others —Sir Henry' Primrose, Sir W. Guy Granet, and Mr A...A. Booth—present an independent report. The keynote of the report is that the rule of promotion by merit should be made universal. Below are summarised the principal recomendatiens of the majority:—

The principle of open competition should be adhered to, and, whenever it is applicable, extended. The grades of boy clerks and of assistant clerks are abolished, and a new class, to be called tha junior clerical class, established in their stead, with a scale salary £SO-£BS, £BS-£l3O, and £l3O-£2OO, with an efficiency bar at £l3O. This junior clerical class is to be recruited by open competition among boys of about 16 who have completed tho intermediate stage of secondary education. The recruitment of clerks of the Second Division and of the intermediate class is to be discontinued, and a Senior Clerical Class established instead, on a. salary scale of £BS- - £l3O-£290, and £290-£350, with an efficiency bar at £290. The age of candidates for this class should be about 18, and the subjects and standard of examination adopted to*test proficiency in a complete secondary education curriculum. Those hitherto recruited and to be recruited in future by the Clas3 I. examination are to be designated the " Administrative Class,'* and it is recommended that a committee should be appointed by the Treasury to ex.imine the suitability of the and methods of Class I. examination. , All situations in each department of State of a professional or technical nature should be scheduled, and such situations as can be suitably filled by qualified persons not over 27 (taken as the limit of the " examinable" ag«) should ordinarily bo —Recruited by Competitive Examination. — Where the ago exceeds 27 all applications are to be first dealt with by a departmental committee, on which the Civil Service, Commissioners shall be represented. Section IV. vi the' Superannuation Act of 1859 to be repealed, and all sucfi professional appointnients to be made under clause 7 of the Order-in-Coiuicil of January, 1910. The existing staffs—professional and nonprofessional—of the Solicitors and Public lishment. Professional and technical situations in the Public Trustee's Office are to be filled by the professional method of selection. For the remainder of the effico recourse should be had to the ordinary clerical classes. The patronage method of appointing examiners in the Board of Education is to be discontinued, and the administrative staff, except in regard to situations requiring special experience, recruited from the Class I. examination. The methods adopted for recruiting tho labor exchanges and unemp'oyment insurance offices, should be regarded as emergency measures, and moro systematic methods should he adopted in similar cases in future, in accordance with tho regulations now laid down. A special section should be created within the Treasury for the general super- \ vision and control of tho Civil Service.

An inquiry should be held by the Treasury to ascertain the clerical, inspectorial, and administrative positions which should be filled by women, and the salaries they should receive, but they should not be admitted to the Class I. examination. The employment of female typists should b(j extended, and in case of exceptional ra*rit promotion should be allowed from the typist "to the clerical staff. ,