§ Mr. Arnold Shawasked the Prime Minister whether the inquiry recommended by the Fulton Committee into ways of speeding up the recruitment processes of the Civil Service Commission has now been completed.
§ The Prime MinisterYes. I received the report of Messrs. Cooper Brother, the management consultants by whom the inquiry has been carried out, last month. Their proposals which are supported in principle by the Departmental Staff Side, are generally accepted and the recruitment processes will be reorganised accordingly in the course of this year. When the changes are fully operative they should reduce the length of the processes by an average of about 30 per cent., and there will also be savings in staff. These savings do not involve cutting out any part of the selection process and will be secured without any threat 283W to the fairness and thoroughness of the procedures of the Commission. They will be achieved by reorganising the machinery for managing competitions, streamlining a number of operations and the wider use of computer techniques.