§ 40. Mr. Gwilym Robertsasked the Minister for the Civil Service, in view of the high proportion of Civil Service entrants educated at public schools and Oxford and Cambridge universities, what further steps he will take to encourage applications from provincial universities.
§ Mr. Charles R. MorrisIn a normal year the Civil Service Commission recruits several thousand graduates, of whom only some 200 enter as administration trainees—the grade which I think my hon. Friend has mainly in mind. The commissioners are concerned above all to choose the most suitable applicants, without regard to their educational or social background but they have nevertheless done their best in recent years to encourage more applications from local education authority schools, from universities other than Oxford and Cambridge, and from polytechnics. I believe they are doing as much in this direction as is practicable.