Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many former Conservative Members of Parliament who were defeated at the 2017 general election and who now work in his Department were appointed after a publicly advertised and open recruitment process.
Answered by Steve Baker
The Department does not routinely hold information on career histories of Civil Servants centrally as this would be held by individual recruiting managers or the Government Recruitment Service who run recruitment competitions. Selection for appointment to the Civil Service, as a permanent Civil Servant, is on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles available at http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/RPApril2015.pdf.
Information on the recruitment of special advisers is set out in the special advisers’ code available at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/579768/code-of-conduct-special-advisers-dec-2016.pdf. Special Advisers are bound by the standards of integrity and honesty as set out in the Civil Service Code but are exempt from the general requirement that Civil Servants should be appointed through an open competition.