§ SIR JOSEPH BAILEYasked the First Lord of the Treasury, With reference to the Order in Council of the 4th June last, and the recent announcement 1670 of the Civil Service Commissioners detailing the names of persons who had passed the preliminary examination to enable them to compete for appointments in the First and Second Class Public Offices, whether the Public Offices have yet been classified; and, if so, which offices it is proposed to include in the First and Second Class respectively: what steps have been taken towards carrying into effect the intention expressed in his speech of the 25th February 1870, of
re-organizing the several departments of the Public Service, with a view specially to the separation of duties which are mechanical and formal, from those duties which require high mental training;and, whether there will be any objection to laying upon the Table of the House any Correspondence which has passed between the Treasury, the Civil Service Commissioners, and the various public Departments on these subjects?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, the hon. Baronet would allow him to answer, as these details fell rather under his eye than that of his right hon. Friend. The hon. Baronet had been led into an error with regard to the public offices. What the Civil Service Commissioners had done had been to recommend that the preliminary examinations should be divided into a first and a second class. Accordingly, the examinations were divided, one being a higher examination than the other. But there had been no intention to divide the public offices into a first and a second class, and, of course, he could give the hon. Baronet no information as to their division. As to carrying into effect the intention which had been expressed of re-organizing the Departments of the Public Service great progress had been made in that work, which was one of much time and much labour. The re-organization of a great many of the present Departments was completed; but the work was not yet finished, and when it was he should be very happy, in the most convenient form he could devise, to lay the result before the House, and he ventured to think it would be satisfactory to them. He could not produce the Correspondence between the Treasury and the different Departments, because it was entirely of a confidential nature.