Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston (CB)

My Lords, I welcome today’s debate and register my interest as the First Civil Service Commissioner. The commission is an independent statutory body and plays a key role in safeguarding the impartiality of our Civil Service. The Civil Service’s professional standards are underpinned by the Civil Service Code’s four core values: honesty, integrity, objectivity and impartiality. Impartiality is fundamental; it means to be ready to serve the Government of the day, whatever their colour. I am supported by commissioners who have experience of private, public and charitable sectors. We serve five-year, non-renewable terms of office. The commission provides oversight and assurance across the entire life cycle of a civil servant’s career. We ensure recruitment is open and fair, and that decisions are based on merit, so if a Permanent Secretary—as the noble Baroness, Lady Spielman, mentioned—instructs a panel to not appoint on merit, they should let us know because that should not happen. We act as the final appellate body for complaints raised under the Civil Service Code and, at exit, we offer independent advice to departing senior officials and special advisers under the Business Appointment Rules. Our purpose and mandate is to safeguard an impartial Civil Service. I thank the House of Lords Library for its briefing. The briefing describes how the commission handled a fundamental breach in the recruitment principles in one department and the subsequent steps we took to ensure it does not happen again. The commission is also the appellate body for Civil Service complaints. Our expectation is for departments to have adequate processes in place and for them to resolve the complaints internally. We have consulted all Permanent Secretaries, including those of Scotland and Wales, to understand how they consider complaints and to give us details on their numbers and outcomes. We value the question in the annual people survey, because it enables us to check awareness of the code and of mechanisms to raise any concerns under it. I am consistently impressed by civil servants’ professionalism and ability to deliver policy with total impartiality. But impartiality is not having no opinions; it is about the discipline of setting them aside. This is not an unusual request and it applies to many professions. If a civil servant’s disagreement with any aspect of government policy or action is profound, the ultimate recourse is to resign from the Civil Service. This is an honourable course, but it is a profession that can and should insist on professional standards. We see ourselves as constitutional guardians of the Civil Service Code’s application. The code already extends in some areas beyond a civil servant’s time in post, in the form of the Business Appointment Rules, which are designed to protect against improper influence and information use in post-government employment. We will soon be publishing a review of the Cabinet Office’s Business Appointment Rules as they apply to Civil Service leavers on their subsequent appointment. As an independent constitutional guardian, we operate at arm’s length. We know that the Government value the independence of the commission and have given us increased responsibilities. We will play an active and supportive role in any steps the Government intend to take to strengthen impartiality in the service and delivery of public services.