CABINET OFFICE
MANAGEMENT AND PERSONNEL OFFICE
CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION
Alencon Link
Basingstoke
Hampshire RG21 1JB
Telephone 0256 29222
GTN
2083
Ms A Grant
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Personnel Policy Dept
3 Central Buildings
Matthew Parker Street
Your reference
Our reference
LONDON
SWI
Date February 1985
Dear Ms Grant
1.
Following discussions with us about 3 years ago, the Ministry of Defence and Overseas Development Administration agreed that there was no case for our continuing to run special competitions, restricted to candidates with service in HM Forces (HMF) or HM Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), for Executive Officer and Clerical Officer posts. The competitions were therefore discontinued. At the
time, we also intended that the age and educational qualifications concessions allowed to ex-HMF and ex-IIMOCS candidates in a range of other recruitment schemes should be abolished. However, we agreed with the MOD and the ODA that these concessions should be allowed to continue for the time being but said that we should want to review the position after a period of years. Subsequently, the ODA agreed that there was no need to continue to allow age concessions for ex-HMOCS candidates, and those have disappeared.
2. We now think it is timely to make a further approach to the MOD and ODA to suggest that the remaining age and educational qualifications concessions (in respect of ex-HMF candidates) and educational qualifications concessions (in respect of ex-IIMOCS candidates) should be discontinued. There are a number of reasons for this. The main purposes of the concessions to enable applications to be made by people who were denied an earlier opportunity because of war service, and to help facilitate the return to civilian life of large numbers of people whose chosen careers were foreshortened by changes in successive governments' defence and colonial policies no longer apply. At a time of high general unemployment, it is not obviously defensible to retain arrangements favouring people who, in many cases, will already have one publicly-funded pension. The number of people who make use of the concessions is very small, so could hardly be held to justify their continued existence. Moreover, the present policy of abolishing (or, in some cases, raising) upper age limits themselves reduces the need for the age concessions. Finally, the existence of the concessions is a complicating factor in drawing up recruitment memoranda; and in particular, the need always to include a tortuous paragraph defining what is meant by service in MOCS, runs counter to the efforts we are making to improve the presentation of our forms and other printed material.
3. One of the competitions concerned is that for Diplomatic Service Grade 9 in which there are age concessions for ex-HMF candidates, and educational qualifications concessions for ex-HMF and ex-HMOCS candidates. According to our records, the number of candidates using the concessions in this competition is minimal. Thus, removal of the concessions is hardly likely to be noticed; in any case, we feel that the other reasons we have given for removing them are
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