CIVIL SERVICE, the generic name given to the public servants of a State employed in a civil capacity. It is the machinery by which the executive, through successive adminis trations, carries on the government of the country. The term is usually limited to officials of the central Government, but in France and certain other countries it includes persons employed by municipalities and other local authorities.
Great Britain.—Apart from workpeople employed in the dockyards and other Government industrial establishments, the civil service in 1927 consisted of some 300,00o persons spread over more than 8o departments, the post office alone accounting for more than 190,00o. (Cmd. 2,972, 1927.) The number of women civil servants in 1927 exceeded 70,00o. Women are now admitted on equal terms with men to compete for appointment to the various branches of the public service. Certain obstacles to their employment as civil servants were re moved by the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act, 1919; and on Aug. 5, 1921, the Government accepted a resolution of the House of Commons providing inter alia that, after a period of three years, women should be admitted to the civil service in Great Britain under the same regulations as applied to men.
Responsibility for the general administration of the civil service is now formally vested in the Treasury : this department being empowered by an Order in Council of July 22, 1920, to "make regulations for controlling the conduct of His Majesty's civil establishments and providing for the classification, remuneration and other conditions of service of all persons employed therein." In accordance with the recommendations of the Royal Commis sion on the Civil Service 1914 (Cd. 1914), and of the Haldane committee on the machinery of government, 1918 (Cd. 9,23o, 1918), a special department of the Treasury was con stituted in 1919 to deal solely with questions bearing on the organization of the public service and the conditions of employ ment of civil servants. In all such matters the Treasury acts in close consultation with the various departments, each of which is held directly responsible for the efficiency of its own staffing arrangements.
The duty of selecting candidates for admission to the civil service rests with the civil service commissioners. This authority was first established by an Order in Council of May 21, for the purpose of conducting "the examination of the young men proposed to be appointed to any of the junior situations in the civil establishments." The introduction in 1870 of the principle of open competition has led to a wide extension of the commis sioners' jurisdiction. It is now provided by the Order in Council of July 22, 1920, that "the qualifications of all persons proposed to be appointed, whether permanently or temporarily, to any situ ation or employment in any of His Majesty's civil establish ments, shall, before they are appointed, be approved by the commissioners" : the only exceptions to this rule being certain specified situations to which the holder is appointed directly by the Crown, situations filled in ordinary course of promotion, and certain classes of temporary situations, for the most part in subordinate grades.
Since 1906 when the postmaster-general announced that he would "frankly recognize any duly constituted association or federation of postal servants," almost all classes of civil servants have formed themselves into organizations for the purpose of dealing with the various departmental authorities on matters affecting their conditions of service. In 1919, following on the reports of the Whitley committee on relations between employers and employed (Cd. 8,6o6, 1917, and Cd. 9,002, 1918) trade joint councils and departmental joint councils were established for the consideration of wages and other conditions of employment in Government industrial establishments; and shortly afterwards, on the recommendation of a provisional joint committee on the application of the Whitley report to the administrative depart ments of the civil service, it was decided to set up a national council, departmental councils and district and office committees for the discussion and settlement of matters affecting the condi tions of service of the staffs of those departments. The national council, which deals with general as distinct from departmental questions, consists of 54 members, appointed in equal numbers by the Government and by groups of staff associations (Cmd. 198, 1919).
As a result of an agreed settlement reached by a committee of the national council, the general administrative and clerical work of the civil service is now provided for by the recruitment of four main classes of officers, viz., a writing assistant class for the simple mechanical work, a clerical class for such work as consists in the application of well-defined regulations, decisions and prac tice to particular cases, an executive class for the higher work of supply and accounting departments and of other executive or specialized branches, and an administrative class for duties con cerned with the formation of policy, with the co-ordination and improvement of Government machinery and with the administra tion and control of departments of the public service. The writ ing assistant class is recruited from among girl candidates by local competitive examinations with age limits of 16 to 17; whilst the age limits and subjects of examination for open competitions for admission to the clerical, executive and administrative classes are determined with reference to the standard of development reached, respectively, at the end of the intermediate stage of a secondary school course, on completion of a secondary school course and on completion of an honours course of a university.
In accordance with the provisions of a scheme recommended by a committee of the national council, part of the pay of civil servants in Great Britain takes the form of a bonus fixed on the basis of the official cost of living figure. Bonus is' not payable to civil servants with salaries of L2,000 a year and over, and below that limit is graduated so that the rate of bonus decreases as salaries increase. It is subject to review every six months in accordance with fluctuations in the cost of living figure.
Pensions and retiring allowances are granted to established civil servants retiring on the ground of age, ill-health or abolition of office. For male civil servants the Superannuation Act, 1909, pre scribes annual pensions of one-eightieth of salary for each year of service, together with a lump sum allowance equal to one thirtieth of salary for each year of service ; and under this act as amended by the Superannuation Act 1914, a gratuity is payable in the event of death during service at the rate of a year's pay or the amount, if greater, of the lump sum allowance that would have been due to the civil servant if at the date of his death he had been invalided from the service. Established women civil servants are pensionable under the Superannuation Act, 1859, which prescribes a scale of sixtieths, but makes no provision for lump sum allowances or death gratuities.
A conciliation and arbitration board for the civil service, es tablished in 1917, came to an end in 1921 ; but in 1925 new ma chinery for the same purpose was set up under the Industrial Courts Act, 1919. The court so established, described in a Treas ury letter No. 6/25 of March 14, 1925, is empowered to deal with "claims affecting emoluments, weekly hours of work and leave of certain classes of civil servants." Cases of individual officers are excluded from the competence of the court. The official announcement says that "subject to the over-riding authority of parliament, the Government will give effect to the awards of the court." It is a well recognized rule of the civil service that civil servants shall not take an overt part in political controversy; and they are prohibited by Order in Council from becoming candidates for parliament whilst still in the service (Cd. 2,408, 1925). Section 5 of the Trades Union and Trades Disputes Act, 1927, provides that established civil servants may not be members of any trade union unless it consists solely of civil servants, is independent of outside trade unions and political parties and organizations, and is free of political objects.