ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the setting up of the Fulton Committee on the Civil Service and the contribution of the Civil Service Commission to its work and, second, of one of the consequences of its recommendations, the review by the Davies Committee2 of the processes of selection for the administrative class of the home civil service. The Fulton Committee was appointed in 1966 against a general attitude in Britain critical of British institutions and calling for modernisation. The Fulton inquiry had more resemblance to a royal commission than to an enquiry on the lines of the Plowden Committee as envisaged by the Estimates Committee. It was a departmental committee; it met in Treasury buildings and received support from Treasury staff. In May 1966 the Treasury presented a paper to the Fulton Committee on ‘The Future Structure of the Civil Service’. The Fulton Report’s comments on the civil service in general and on recruitment in particular were highly controversial.
