Open recruitment

Written ministerial statement by Eric Pickles on what DCLG is doing to increase transparency in government.

I would like to update the House on what my department is doing to increase transparency in government.

My department has taken a series of steps to deliver savings for taxpayers. Staff costs for core DCLG have fallen from £216 million in 2009 to 2010 to £95 million in 2013 to 2014, a reduction of 56% in cash terms and an annual saving of £121 million a year.

The number of staff has been reduced by 57% 3,781 full-time equivalent in 2009 to 2010 to 1,622 in 2013 to 2014. Spending on temporary staff (which can be cheaper than permanent staff for specific projects) has fallen from £14.4 million in 2009 to 2010 to £3.3 million in 2013 to 2014.

Spending on consultancies has fallen from £36.6 million in 2009 to 2010 to £0.5 million in 2013 to 2014. Yet there remains a need to replace staff from time to time due to general turnover.

The coalition agreement pledged: “We will open up Whitehall recruitment by publishing central government job vacancies online”. So, in April 2014, my department became the first Whitehall department to do this systematically.

Under the situation we inherited from the last administration, between a third and half of all job vacancies were not advertised to the wider public, but only to the Civil Service. This was the last closed shop – and a practice that was unfair not just to those in the voluntary or private sector, but also those who worked elsewhere in the public sector (such as local government).

Under the last administration, the practice also resulted in higher spending on consultancy contracts and recruitment agencies to bring in private sector expertise.

All jobs are now advertised online at: www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk .

From April 2014 to the beginning of March, we have made 136 appointments:

• 30% were filled internally
• 30% were filled by applicants from other departments
• 40% were filled by external candidates

I believe this provides a good balance between promoting hard working staff internally, tapping into the expertise of the Civil Service, and benefiting from the skills and experience of those from the wider public, voluntary and private sector.

Parts of the Civil Service has been somewhat shy about recognising the benefits of this policy. I hope the wider government will embrace such openness in the months ahead.