HC Deb 02 December 1991 vol 200 cc18-9
41. Mr. Viggers

To ask the Minister for the Civil Service if he will make a statement on the recruitment procedures for the civil service as operated at universities and polytechnics.

Mr. Renton

We believe strongly in the policy of selection on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. It applies to all applicants, including those from universities and polytechnics.

Mr. Viggers

Does my right hon. Friend agree that it was a bright idea of the head of the civil service to encourage each of his grandees, the permanent secretaries in the different Departments, to establish a link with a separate university? Does my right hon. Friend also agree that that underlines the fact that the civil service offers a fine career to all, regardless of their educational background, since selection and promotion are purely on merit?

Mr. Renton

Yes, I very much agree with my hon. Friend. In recent years the aim has been to spread entry into the civil service. During the past three years the proportion of Oxbridge candidates has dropped from 70 per cent. between 1982 and 1984 to 50 per cent. now. I hope that that trend will continue. As for the heads of the various Departments "adopting a poly", as it came to be called in the newspapers, that is a very imaginative idea, the purpose of which is to make the prospect of a civil service career much more widely known.

Mrs. Dunwoody

Since we are told that a fast stream has been created to enable more graduates to enter the Brussels organisations, why is not it possible for the Minister to create a fast stream and to increase pay rates so as to encourage more women graduates to go into higher-paid civil service jobs?

Mr. Renton

I am pleased to tell the hon. Lady that women are particularly successful in the fast stream competition. That is one area where their prominence is—

Mrs. Dunwoody

Why not for the home civil service?

Mr. Renton

Not just for the European fast stream, but for the domestic fast stream. It is there most particularly that women are getting a high percentage of the jobs and it is they who will be in grade 1 and 2 in future years. That is where women are showing that they can come first past the post.