I move:
That a sum not exceeding £51,800 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1969, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Civil Service Commission and of the Local Appointments Commission.
I should like to make a few comments on this. As Deputies know, the purpose of this Estimate is to provide finance for two well-known and long-established bodies, the Civil Service Commission and the Local Appointments Commission. The function of these two bodies is of importance in recruiting the necessary staff for the Civil Service and the local authority service.
As Deputies are aware, most permanent appointments to the Civil Service are made through the Civil Service Commission. The Civil Service is growing in size, and this growth in size is due to the development of the demands made on the public service by all the different sections of the community. This, of course, means that recruitment to the Service continues to increase. In fact, we are now making appointments to the Civil Service at the rate of 3,000 a year, so the Civil Service Commission has to process an increasing number of applications annually.
The written tests now involve the correction of the papers of 11,000 or 12,000 applicants, and the interview boards have to deal with about 4,500 applicants every year. This throws an increasing burden on the Commission. That work, I think, will continue to grow as a result of some decisions I have recently taken on behalf of our young people who are interested in applying for Civil Service posts. I mentioned some of these decisions in the Budget Statement. I indicated on that occasion that entrance fees have been abolished since 1st June, 1968. Fees for the medical examination of candidates are also on the way out. I am sure these steps will be welcomed by parents of schoolchildren who are looking to the Civil Service for their careers. We are also making the following improvements: there will be visits on a wider scale to schools and universities by the staff of the Commission and, in some instances, indeed, by the staff of my Department to tell young people about the Civil Service and the careers in it; there will be attractive brochures about the competitions to be held; and we shall revise and improve the format of advertisements and make, I hope, better arrangements for the reception of the general public when they call to the Commission's officers.
Efforts are also being made to ensure that the interval between the examination and the publication of the results is a great deal shorter than it has been up to now.
