The First Civil Service Commissioner heads the

Civil Service Commission A civil service commission is a government agency that is constituted by legislature to regulate the employment and working conditions of civil servants, oversee hiring and promotions, and promote the values of the public service. Its role is rough ...

, a statutory body which ensures that appointments to the Civil Service in the United Kingdom are made openly and on merit, and hears appeals from civil servants under the Civil Service Code. The post was created in 1855 following publication of the

Northcote–Trevelyan Report The Northcote-Trevelyan Report was a document prepared by Stafford H. Northcote (later to be Chancellor of the Exchequer) and C.E. Trevelyan (then Permanent Secretary at the Treasury) about the British Civil Service. Commissioned in 1853 and ...

by Charles Trevelyan and Stafford Northcote that advocated the decoupling of appointments of senior civil servants from ministers to insure the impartiality of the Civil Service. Following a report of the

Committee on Standards in Public Life The Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) is an advisory non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom Government, established by John Major in 1994 to advise the Prime Minister on ethical standards of public life. It promotes a code o ...

, ''"Defining the Boundaries within the Executive: Ministers, special advisers and the permanent Civil Service"'' in 2003, the appointment of the First Civil Service Commissioner is made by Government after consultation with the leaders of the main opposition parties. They are then appointed by the

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

under Royal Prerogative.

List of first civil service commissioners

*Sir Edward Ryan (1855–1875) *

John Pakington, 1st Baron Hampton John Somerset Pakington, 1st Baron Hampton, (20 February 1799 – 9 April 1880), known as Sir John Pakington, Bt, from 1846 to 1874, was a British Conservative politician. Background and education He was born John Somerset Russell, the son of Wi ...

(1875–1880) * George Byng, Viscount Enfield (later 3rd Earl of Strafford) (1880–88) *... * William Courthope (1892–1907) * Lord Francis Hervey (1907–1909) * Sir Stanley Leathes (1910–1927) *Sir Roderick Meiklejohn (1927–1939) *Sir Percival Waterfield (1939–1951) *Sir Paul Sinker (1951–1954) * Laurence Helsby, Baron Helsby (1954–1959) *Sir George Mallaby (1959–1964) *Sir George Abell (1964–1967) * John Hunt (1967–1971) *Sir Kenneth Henry Clucas (1971–1974) *Dr Fergus Allen (1974–1981) *

Angus Fraser Angus Robert Charles Fraser (born 8 August 1965) is an English cricket administrator. He served as the managing director of Middlesex Cricket between 2009 and 2021, before assuming a new role heading the club's academy He is also a former E ...

(1981–1983) * Dennis Trevelyan (1983–1989) * John Holroyd (1989–1993) *Dame Ann Bowtell (1993–1995) *Sir

Michael Bett Sir Michael Bett, CBE (born 1935) is a retired English business executive, personnel manager and public servant. Educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Bett became director of industrial relations at the Engineering Employers' Federation in 1 ...

(1995–2000) *

Usha Prashar, Baroness Prashar Usha Kumari Prashar, Baroness Prashar, (born 29 June 1948) is a British politician and a crossbench member of the House of Lords. Since the 1970s, she has served as a director or chair of a variety of public and private sector organisations. She ...

(2000–2005) * Janet Paraskeva (2006–2010) *Mark Addison (2011) (interim) *Sir David Normington (2011–2016) *Kathryn Bishop (2016) (interim) *

Ian Watmore Ian Charles Watmore (born 5 July 1958) is a British management consultant and former senior civil servant under three prime ministers, serving from October 2016 as the First Civil Service Commissioner. Early life and business career Born in C ...

(2016–2021) *Rosie Glazebrook (2021 interim) *Baroness

Gisela Stuart Gisela Stuart, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston (''née'' Gschaider; born 26 November 1955) is a British-German politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Edgbaston from 1997 to 2017. A former member of the Lab ...

(2022 - present)

References

External links

Office of the Civil Service Commissioners
Government occupations Government of the United Kingdom Civil Service (United Kingdom) National civil service commissions 1855 establishments in the United Kingdom

List of first civil service commissioners

References

Further reading

External links