How Departments are doing on fair and open recruitment: what the Commission’s audits found
The Commission’s role is to check that Civil Service recruitment is done on merit, through fair and open competition – as required by law.
Why our audits matter
The most visible part of the Commission’s work is probably its team of independent Commissioners who personally chair Civil Service recruitment competitions at senior levels, but we also audit recruitment carried out by departments and public bodies at all other levels each year.
We also look at how well departments are complying with the Recruitment Principles and are proactive, in their engagement with the Commission, to improve their processes
We recently completed this year’s audit round and here’s what we found.
What we did
Our team reviewed recruitment in all the 71 departments and public bodies we regulate.
We carried out full audits of 39 departments considered higher risk including:
- reviewing a sample of recruitment campaigns and exception cases;
- assessing innovation and diversity in recruitment practice;
- focus on SCS recruitment;
- meeting with the department (full audits); and
- issuing a final score and recommendations (full audits).
Our audits take into account the size and complexity of each organisation and all full audits are checked by a panel of our independent Commissioners.
We also completed 32 interim audits as a light health check of practice in the remaining organisations that were not subject to full audit this year..
The good news
We found most departments are broadly compliant with the Recruitment Principles. Good examples included:
- Clear, accessible job adverts.
- Strong evidence of merit-based processes.
- Innovative practices to reach new pools of people and improve diversity – like drop-in sessions and training for interview panels.
Areas for improvement
On occasions we found:
- Confusion over the use of essential and desirable criteria.
- Unclear use of CVs.
- Lack of clarity and consistency at sift stages.
- Errors on the management of appointments by exception (where open and fair recruitment is not followed)
- Some lack of familiarity with the Recruitment Principles, especially in smaller organisations.
- Limited evidence of efforts to reach more diverse pools of candidates.
What’s next
We will continue to share the findings of the audit programme with departments and senior leaders.
Organisations that received a lower rating will be re-audited by the Commission in 2025/26 and others close to this threshold will also be rechecked.
We will be monitoring how departments follow the Commission’s recommendations.
We will also continue running workshops and training, including on the correct use of exceptions, frequent breaches and how to avoid them, and other common mistakes that we see in fair and open recruitment.
We are also looking at new tools, including digital solutions and AI, that will help us to improve the efficiency of our audits.
Final word
It’s clear that most departments are doing well – but there is always room for improvement. The Commission is here to help ensure Civil Service recruitment is fair, open and is based on merit. We are committed to supporting a highly skilled Civil Service workforce to deliver for the country.
