Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department provides on taking factors other than merit into consideration when it comes to civil service (a) appointments and (b) promotions.

Appointments and promotions in the Cabinet Office are based on the principle of merit. This is required for all external appointments and substantive promotions in line with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles. Internal recruitment and temporary promotions are also subject to merit-based processes.

There are a small number of specific, legally defined exceptions where the Civil Service Commission permits recruitment outside of the Recruitment Principles of open, fair and merit. This could be, for example, to meet a temporary or urgent business need or to increase the life chances of individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds (Government Employability Programmes). These appointments are strictly regulated and audited by the Commission.

An existing employee may be appointed to a role without a merit-based competition as a redundancy mitigating measure and there can be managed moves to a role at the same grade.