Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on how many occasions his Department has made appointments by exception since 2010; and who was appointed for each such post.

My Department recruits on the basis of fair and open competition, with candidates being appointed on the basis of merit.

There are a very small number of exceptions, which are recognised by the Civil Service Commission; in our Department’s case, this is generally due to facilitate specific secondments from external organisations (for example, there were a series of fire secondments to provide support for the Olympics fire and security team), or to allow for appointments of individuals with specialised skillsets (for example, local audit) or for a time-limited project.

The attached table gives a breakdown for each year since 2010-11, and to facilitate scrutiny, I have included 2009-10 to enable comparison with the use of exceptions under the last Administration.

Figures for 2014-15 will be submitted in due course. Due to Data Protection obligations, it is not appropriate to disclose the identity of the individual staff concerned.

More information on the civil Service Commission's guidance on recruitment exceptions can be found online at:

http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Recruitment-Principles-April-2014.pdf (Annex A)

More broadly, my Department has taken steps to open up job vacancies in the Department to a wider audience.