Departmental Compliance
Compliance with the Recruitment Principles
The Commission delivers a comprehensive programme to promote compliance with the Recruitment Principles while encouraging innovation, ensuring that the important principle of recruitment on merit, after fair and open competition remains the cornerstone of an effective and impartial Civil Service.
2024-25 Audit Programme
The 2024/25 audit year was the first in a three-year audit cycle, with 39 departments and arm’s length bodies (ALBs) receiving a full audit. These audits examined recruitment at all grades across a range of different recruitment campaigns, highlighting areas of positive practice, areas for improvement, and any breaches of the Recruitment Principles.
During this period the Commission also completed 28 interim audits, generating important insights into recruitment practices across a range of public bodies, subject to the Recruitment Principles.
2025-26 Audit Programme
Building on the system-wide insights from the first year of this three-year audit cycle, the 2025/26 audit programme is risk-based, with audits focusing specifically on organisations of concern. Wider compliance activity, delivered in parallel to the audit programme, provides targeted tailored support, system-wide breach prevention and data analysis.
For questions on the audits and breaches, please contact the Compliance team at [email protected].
Relevant documents and reports
- An overview of departmental audits for 2024/25 can be found here.
- Each report can be found in our Publications library.
- The full list of breaches to the Recruitment Principles in 2024/25 can be found here.
Last updated: March 2026