The Civil Service Commission, the central department for the selection and certification of qualified staff, was created in Britain in 1855 and abolished in 1991. In its early years it quickly established itself as a significant institution for making central government administration more efficient and for eliminating the corruption which resulted in large part from patronage in the appointment of officials. To the surprise of many public administration practitioners and scholars in other countries, there is no ‘Civil Service Act’ in the United Kingdom. Other countries nearly all have a basic and comprehensive document, often enshrined in law, which lays down both the structure of the civil service and the relations of civil servants with ministers and among themselves, and also indicates procedures and the standards of behaviour that are required of officials. In the early days of the Commission, its duties were mainly to administer test examinations to candidates who had been nominated, and to administer limited competitions.