Commission Publishes the Civil Service Grade Structure

The Civil Service Commission today published the grade structure of the civil service of the Network. The structure has seven grades, from Assistant Officer at Grade 1 to Director General at Grade 7, and replaces the separate arrangements each member organisation kept before establishment.

Every post in the service is assigned to a grade by reference to the responsibility it carries, the decisions its holder may take without reference upwards and the resources for which its holder answers. Posts transferred at establishment were assigned to the nearest grade, and no official's terms were altered by the assignment. A department that considers a post wrongly assigned may apply to the Commission for it to be regraded; applications are decided within twenty working days.

Authority to appoint is delegated to departments for Grades 1 to 4, subject to the recruitment principles and to audit. Appointments at Grade 5 are made by a panel chaired by a Commissioner. Appointments at Grades 6 and 7 are made by a panel convened by the Commission, which reports the outcome and the reasons for it in its quarterly return.

The grade structure, the composition of panels at each grade and the routes by which officials move between grades are set out on the Civil Service Grades page of this site.