civil service

civil service Despite repeated campaigns to reduce numbers, the civil service remains one of the great growth areas of modern Britain. In the 17th cent. the civil service—i.e. persons directly employed by the government—was tiny. The two secretaries of state had a staff of about fifteen.

The growth of the civil service in the 19th cent. was moderate and hardly kept pace with the rise in population. In 1815 there were 25, 000 civil servants; 39, 000 by 1851; 54, 000 by 1871; and 79, 000 by 1891. Some reforms were introduced piecemeal by departments. In the Treasury, North had launched the concept of promotion by merit (1776), Shelburne had inaugurated fixed salaries (1782), and in 1805 an assistant secretary was appointed, the forerunner of the permanent secretary. A comprehensive review waited for the Northcote–Trevelyan Report of 1854, which recommended a division of labour between graduate policy‐makers and humble administrators; entry by competitive examination; transfer between departments; and promotion by merit based on assessment. A Civil Service Commission, to supervise recruitment, was set up in 1855.

The vast expansion of the civil service in the 20th cent. is not easy to calculate. Definitions are troublesome and one commentator has referred to the ‘statistical conjuring tricks’—e.g. recategorizing thousands of civil servants—to give the impression that numbers are falling. By 1939 the numbers had risen to 387, 000 and by 1979 to 730, 000. These developments were accompanied by further reports. Haldane in 1918 was concerned that senior civil servants had little time to think. Plowden in 1961 complained that the Treasury had no adequate system for controlling expenditure—a rather worrying observation—and the Fulton Committee in 1968 deplored the survival of the cult of the amateur gentleman. One consequence was the establishment of a Civil Service College in 1970 to conduct research and training.

Though the public image of the civil servant may remain a pin‐striped bowler‐hatted Whitehall mandarin, most civil servants work outside London and half of them are women. Of the non‐industrial civil service, the large employers are the Ministry of Defence, the Department of Social Security, the Board of Inland Revenue, the Department of Education and Employment, the Department of the Environment, the Home Office, and Customs and Excise.