HC Deb 01 March 1999 vol 326 c580W
Mr. Hancock

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will make a statement on the criteria used to assign posts classified as reserved within the Civil Service. [72648]

Mr. Kilfoyle

Article 48 of the EC Treaty is concerned with the free movement of workers between Member States, but it contains a derogation in Article 48(4) which permits Member States to reserve to their own nationals posts which constituteemployment in the public service". The term employment in the public service has been interpreted by the European Court as meaning posts which involve direct or indirect participation in the exercise of powers conferred by public law and duties designed to safeguard the general interests of the State or of other public authorities.

These criteria are applied on a case-by-case basis in determining whether a particular post in the civil service is reserved to a UK national.