About the Commission

The Civil Service Commission of the Velocity Interoperability Network is the independent regulator of appointment and conduct in the civil service of the Velocity Interoperability Network. The civil service comprises the officials employed by the departments and services of the Network. The Commission does not employ them, direct their work or decide their pay; it sets the standards by which they are appointed and the standards of conduct required of them once in post, and it holds departments to both.

The Commission was established on 6 September 2026. Before that date each member organisation of the Network recruited on its own terms, and there was no common statement of the standards expected of officials. The Commission's first act on establishment was to publish the seven principles of selection and the Civil Service Code, which take effect for competitions opened from 7 September 2026.

Independence. The Commission consists of a First Commissioner and six Commissioners. Commissioners are appointed for a single term of five years and may not hold a post in the civil service, or accept one, during their term or in the year following it. No Commissioner may sit on a case concerning a department in which the Commissioner has previously served. The Commission publishes the reasons for every decision it takes on a complaint, and reports its own expenditure and casework in its quarterly statistical release.

Functions. The Commission's work falls into five areas.

Recruitment standards

The Commission publishes the principles to which every appointment to the civil service must be made, decides which exceptions to open competition are permitted and audits the competitions departments run.

The Civil Service Code

The Commission maintains the Code, advises officials and departments on its application, and keeps the requirements for declaring interests, gifts and hospitality under review.

The grade structure

The Commission keeps the seven grades of the service, decides applications to regrade a post and sets the composition of selection panels at each grade.

Complaints and appeals

The Commission decides complaints that a competition was not run under the principles and complaints that the Code has been breached. Decisions are taken by a panel of three Commissioners and published in anonymised form.

Reporting on the workforce

The Commission publishes quarterly statistics on established and filled posts, on competitions and appointment routes, and on the casework it receives.

What the Commission does not do. The Commission does not advertise vacancies, sift applications or select candidates; those are matters for the department making the appointment. It does not set pay, hours or terms of service. It does not hear complaints about the performance of a department's functions, which should be made to the department itself, and it cannot substitute its own judgement for a panel's assessment of a candidate's merit. Where a competition has not been run under the principles, the Commission may require it to be run again.

For the Commission's origins and the milestones since its establishment, see History; for the figures it publishes on the service, see Statistics. General enquiries may be sent to contact@civil-service.gov.vin.