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this task and it is proving of some help to departments when we relieve them of the burden of the disciplinary
process. But this is not enough and we need to make disciplinary action much quicker, less complicated and therefore more effective. The offender needs to be caught
and administered a short sharp shock as unceremoniously and as quickly as possible. In order to achieve this, it seems to me that we must delegate far more to departments and I believe we can do this without any great sacrifice of sacrosanct principle. In effect, we need to treat all departments in rather the same way as the disciplined services and allow them to conduct their own proceedings at appropriate levels. Most of them are big enough to
make this necessary anyway and, if heads of departments are given the responsibility, I believe they would take it.
It does not worry me in the least that there would be different standards between departments and it should be possible to overcome this problem by issuing guidelines and by providing adequate channels for appeal.
27.
In delegating to departments, I would however suggest one major change to the procedure now used by the disciplined services. This is that we should differentiate by offence rather than rank. This means, for instance, that we should give to heads of departments the power to punish all officers for certain offences, whatever their rank, and that we should reserve for tribunals controlled by CSB only those cases which involve the most serious offences likely to result in termination of service, again whatever the rank of the officer
concerned. I think this modification would be welcomed by the
Service. After all, dismissal is just as serious a
matter for a clerk as it is for me.
28.
I hope this talk has helped you to understand some of the background, some of our problems and some of our ideas for the future. We have learnt a lot in the last few years and, in some ways, we now stand at cross roads. It is important that we choose the right road and that we start to follow it soon.