HL Deb 28 October 1946 vol 143 cc809-10WA
THE EARL OF PERTH

asked His Majesty's Government (1) what are the special needs of the senior branch of the Foreign Service which have made a change in the regulations for the recruitment of that Service desirable while no such change is considered desirable in the regulations for the administrative class of the Home Civil Service;

(2) whether the changes in the existing regulations for recruitment to the Foreign Service announced in August last are of a temporary character and necessitated by conditions resulting from the war period and will cease to have effect when those conditions are removed.

VISCOUNT ADDISON

I will with permission answer these two questions together. Two amendments to the regulations for recruitment to the senior branch of the Foreign Service were announced by the Civil Service Commissioners in August last. The first amend- ment provided for a slight relaxation of the requirements with regard to the academic qualifications of prospective candidates, thereby enabling a certain number to compete who would otherwise have been excluded. The second amendment provided for a slight lowering of the qualifying standard in the written part of the examination. The first amendment applied to the Foreign Service only whereas the second amendment applied also to candidates for the Administrative Class of the Home Civil Service.

The existing regulations apply only to the present "Reconstruction" series of examinations which were designed to cater for candidates whose education had been interrupted by war service. The regulations for the future normal examinations have not yet been drawn up. The purpose of the first amendment was to meet the desire of my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to widen the field from which candidates for the Foreign Service were drawn. The nature of the work performed by members of the Foreign Service differs in many respects from that of members of the Home Civil Service—notably in that the former are called upon to represent their country abroad—and the qualities required for these two Services are clearly not identical.

House adjourned at five minutes before seven o'clock.