Special Advisers (Hansard, 1 August 1978)

§ Mr. Charles R. Morris

Under the Civil Service Order in Council 1969, the Civil Service Commissioners are required to certify the qualifications of all persons proposed for permanent appointment in 227W the Home Civil Service and the Diplomatic Service, except for those appointed directly by the Crown or covered by special statutory exemption. The Order in Council provides that "permanent appointment" means appointment in a capacity which, in the opinion of the commissioners, after consultation with the Minister for the Civil Service or the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as the case may be, is a permanent capacity.

The commissioners have, for many years, operated on the basis that any appointment which initially or on renewal is to last more than five years is permanent. They have, however, recently been advised by their legal advisers that the courts might well take the view that the commissioners should, in forming their opinion, take into account that the natural meaning of a "permanent appointment" is one which may continue until the individual appointed reaches pensionable age, and that an appointment which is intended to end at a point of time well short of the completion of a career would not be readily understood to he permanent. In the light of this advice, the commissioners have concluded that the appointments of special advisers, limited to the life of the current Administration, are self-evidently not permanent, even if a series of such appointments extended beyond five years, and therefore do not require their certification.

The commission's recent examination of this matter has suggested that their powers are more limited than current practice has assumed. The Government consider it to be unsatisfactory that only appointments of indefinite duration which may last a full career should be subject to the commission's approval; and in order to strengthen the commissioners' control of recruitment to the Home Civil Service and the Diplomatic Service, they propose to amend the Civil Service Order in Council so as to provide that the commission's certification is required for all appointments other than the two exceptions already provided for in the Order in Council and three further specific exceptions: casual appointments for a period of up to 12 months; appointments limited to the duration of a current administration; and such other appointments for a total duration of five years or less as the commission may from time to time decide. It is now established 228W that appointments for the duration of a current Administration do not fall within the scope of the Order in Council, and it is undesirable that they should do so in future.