Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Office, Scotland :All situations.t Record Office, England:-All situations.t Record Office, Ireland :-Clerks. Reformatories Office, England :-All situations.+ Register House Departments, Edin- Registrar-General's Office, Ireland:- Royal Observatory, Scotland:-All Salmon Fisheries Office :-All situations.† Science and Art Department:-All situations.t Seamen's Registry Office :-All situa- Stationery Office :-All situations.† War Office.All situations.† GENERAL REGULATIONS RESPECTING OPEN COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS IN THE HOME CIVIL SERVICE. The following are the GENERAL Regulations for Civil Service examinations, and also the SPECIAL Regulations issued by the Civil Service Commissioners with reference to the chief open competitions. It should be borne in mind that these Regulations are liable to alteration. 1. Competitive examinations of candidates for situations in the different public departments will be held at such times and at such places as may be deemed expedient. Before every such examination Special Regulations will be issued, in which the particular conditions of the competition will be specified. 2. These examinations will have reference either to the vacancies existing at the time of the examinations respectively, or to the number which may be estimated to occur within any period not exceeding six months after the comExcept in the Political Department. + With a few minor exceptions. mencement of the examinations, as may be laid down in Special Regulations, or in any notice of such examinations published, with the approval of the Lords of the Treasury, in the London Gazette. 3. These examinations are open, under such general restrictions as may be laid down, to all natural-born subjects of Her Majesty, being of the requisite age, health, and character. The under-mentioned restrictions are at present in force : (i.) Persons actually serving in the Army and Navy are ineligible. (ii.) The following classes of persons are eligible under certain conditions only, that is to say : (a) Persons holding situations in the Civil Service. (b) Members of the Royal Irish Constabulary of less than 12 years' service. (c) Apprentices and Engineer Students in Her Majesty's Dockyards. (d) Persons who have been trained in Normal Schools at the public expense. Persons comprised in the classes (a), (b), (c) must have produced to the Civil Service Commissioners, before the date of the competition, the written permission of the authorities of their department to attend the examination.* Persons comprised in class (d) will not be qualified to receive appointments until the consent of the Committee of Council on Education, Great Britain, or the Commissioners of National Education, Ireland, as the case may be, given in conformity with rules sanctioned by the Lords of the Treasury, has been notified to the Civil Service Commissioners. 4. In reckoning age for competition the following allowances are made— viz., 1, members of the Military and Naval Services (whether commissioned or non-commissioned) may deduct from their actual age any time during which they have served towards pension; 2, persons who have served for two full consecutive years (a) in any Civil situation to which they were admitted with the certificate of the Civil Service Commissioners, (b) in the Royal Irish Constabulary, or (c) as Registered Copyists in connection with the Civil Service, may deduct from their actual age any time not exceeding five years which they may have spent in such service. 5. If at any examination two or more situations, whether in the same or in different departments, shall be offered for competition, the successful candidates will be permitted (unless otherwise stated in Special Regulations) to choose in their order as determined by the competitive examination among the situations offered for competition, provided that they be duly qualified according to the special rules prescribed under Clause IV. of Her Majesty's Order in Council of 4th June, 1870, for the particular situations to which they may severally be assigned. If there be a vacant situation for which no one of the successful candidates is duly qualified, the Civil Service Commissioners may offer it to the highest candidate on the list whom they may deem duly qualified, or to the candidate highest at the time on the list, subject to his passing a qualifying examination within such period as they may determine; or they may reserve it to be filled by means of a subsequent open competition, or otherwise, as they may see fit, in accordance with the Order in Council of 4th June, 1870. *It is desirable that this permission should be produced at least one week before the date of the competition. SPECIAL REGULATIONS RESPECTING OPEN COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS FOR CLERKSHIPS (CLASS I.) IN THE CIVIL SERVICE. 1. The limits of age for these situations are 18 and 24, and candidates must be of the prescribed age on the first day of the competitive examination. (For exceptions to this rule, see "Subjects of Examination and Limits of Age.") 2. At the competitive examinations exercises will be set in the following subjects only, the maximum of marks for each subject being fixed as follows, viz. : English Composition (including précis-writing) Marks. 500 500 500 750 750 375 375 375 1,250 ... 1,000 Mathematics (pure and mixed) : Natural Science that is (1) Chemistry, including Heat; The total (1,000) marks may be obtained by adequate pro- Moral Sciences: that is Logic, Mental and Moral Philo Candidates will be at liberty to offer themselves for examination in any or all of these subjects. No subjects are obligatory. No candidate will be allowed any marks in respect of any subject of examination unless he shall be considered to possess a competent knowledge of that subject. 3. No candidate can be admitted to the competition who has not previously satisfied the Civil Service Commissioners that he possesses the requisite amount of proficiency in the following subjects: 1. Handwriting. 2. Orthography. 3. Arithmetic (to Vulgar and Decimal Fractions). 4. English Composition. With this view, preliminary examinations in these subjects will be held at such times and places as the Commissioners may appoint. Application for permission to attend one of these preliminary examinations must be made in the writing of the candidate, at such times and in such manner as may be fixed by the Commissioners. 4. A fee of £1 will be required from every candidate attending a preliminary examination, and a further fee of £5 from every candidate who may be admitted to the competition. 5. Out of the list resulting from each competitive examination will be filled (provided there be candidates duly qualified): : (a) All the vacancies in Class I. which may have been reported to the Civil Service Commissioners up to the date at which the notice of the examination is published in the London Gazette; (b) Such other vacancies (being in the "New Higher Division of the Civil Service") as the Civil Service Commissioners, with the approval of the Lords of the Treasury, shall estimate as likely to occur within six months after the date of the said notice; (c) Any vacancy in Class I. (but not in the "New Higher Division") occurring within six months from the said date, which the head of the department may desire to have so filled. Candidates will be allowed to choose, according to their place on the list, among the vacancies (a) for which they are duly qualified; or they may elect to wait for a vacancy (b) or for the chance of a vacancy (c). When vacancies (b) or (c) occur, they will be offered in rotation to the qualified candidates then on the list, who will be free to decline them without forfeiting their claim to subsequent vacancies (b) or (c). By the term New Higher Division of the Civil Service" in this regulation are meant situations to be filled under Regulation I., with salaries commencing at £100, and rising by triennial increments to £400, to which may be added, at any stage, in the case of persons selected for the performance of special duties, duty pay of proportionate amount not exceeding £200. With reference to these Class I. Competitions, it may be well to explain that the terms Scheme I. and Class I. are not to be understood as implying an "Upper Division" of the whole Civil Service, corresponding to the Lower Division which was established by Order in Council 12th February, 1876. No such class has yet been constituted, although the Treasury have taken, as we have before explained, some steps in that direction by creating in certain departments a class of situations with salaries regulated according to the proposal of the Civil Service Enquiry Commission, and designated the "New Higher Division." These are included along with others of very different value under the common name of "Clerkships Class I.," which signifies merely that they are competed for at examinations governed by the regulations for Class I. The number of situations filled under Scheme I., in the twelve years ending 31st December, 1882, was 133, the total number of competitors having been 602; out of whom, besides the 133 candidates actually appointed, 70 received offers of appointments which they did not accept. The following is a list of the 133 situations above referred to:--Clerkships in the Treasury, 5; Colonial Office, 10; India Office, 10; Civil Service Commission, 7; Assistant Surveyorships of Taxes in the Inland Revenue, 32*; Clerkships in the Lunacy Commission, 2; Patent Office, 6; Post Office Secretary's Office), 22; Record Office (England), 14; Record Office (Ireland), 8; Home Office, 2; War Office, 5; Admiralty, 8; Local Government Board (Ireland), 2. There can be no question as to the difficult character of the examination. No amount of mere cramming can possibly qualify for so severe a test. It must be remembered that no marks whatever are allowed for a subject unless a competent knowledge is shown in the examination paper. To this end 125 marks are deducted from the total obtained in each subject, this number representing what is considered only a superficial acquaintance with the subject. The examination lasts 17 days. The following table shows the marks gained by the first 18 candidates in the * These competitions are no longer filled up under Scheme I. See "Regulations for Excise." Class I. Competition held in June, 1882, with the maximum number of marks for each subject. 117 MAXIMA 500 500 500 750 750 375 375 375 1250 1000 500 375 375 1 300 233 171 486 401 750 2458 236 150 144 2373 The following were the 10 appointments competed for, but as several of the candidates declined the appointment offered, they were accepted in the order mentioned below: [Declined the appointment offered to him.] | Clerk (New Higher Division). [Declined the appointment offered to him.] [Ditto.] No. 6 Clerk (New Higher Division). No. 18 (Ireland) Admiralty Clerk. Clerk (New Higher Division). |