Civil Service Appeal Board
To improve knowledge of hearing procedures, the CSAB offers the opportunity to observe a hearing prior to presenting a case before the Board. If you wish to make use of this facility, please contact Colin Bentley on 020 7276 3834 to arrange a suitable date.
The Board continues to encourage strongly people to observe a hearing before attending, because this can be of great benefit in preparation for their own appearance before the Board. You will need to consider whether you object to observers being present at your hearing.
Having decided to appeal you should make every effort to attend the hearing in person. If you do not attend the hearing the Appeal Board will consider your case on the written statements sent in by you and your department/agency. However, please remember that this will mean you miss the opportunity to explain your case to the Board in detail and will also prevent you from drawing the Board's attention to any disagreement you might have with the department’s/agency’s written statement.
The hearing will be confidential to the parties concerned and is conducted as informally as possible. The Chairman will firstly explain the procedures which the Board will follow and then invite you or your representative to make a statement on your behalf. This should briefly explain why you consider the dismissal to have been unfair; there is however no need to go through the written material in detail as the Board members will all have read the papers in great depth.
The Board will then question you and your representative about your oral and written submissions. After the questioning the department/agency will be given the opportunity to respond and then will be questioned by the Board. Finally you and your representative will be given the chance to make your final submission to the Board. After that the Chairman of the Board will ask all parties to leave and the Board will meet in private to make its decision.
Your department/agency will meet your travelling and subsistence expenses. Also, if appropriate, it will meet the loss of earnings by you and your representative, unless he or she is a full-time trade union official, solicitor or barrister. You should contact the department/agency directly regarding expenses.
Your Board will be made up of a Chair, (either the Board's Chair or one of his two deputies), assisted by two Board members, one selected from the Trade Union Side Panel and the other from the Management Side Panel.
All members of the CSAB, except the Chair, are retired civil servants who have many years Human Resources Management experience either through their positions in management or through their trade union activism.
It has been the policy of the Cabinet Office, which sponsor the CSAB, since the early 1980's to appoint an experienced personnel practitioner from the private sector as Chair of the Board as the best way to demonstrate the independence of the Board.
All appointments to the CSAB are made in line with guidance on public appointments to advisory non-departmental public bodies issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Prospective Board Members are selected for interview from those nominated either by the Council of Civil Service Unions for the trade union side or departments and agencies for the Management side.
Normally members will be appointed for a three-year term with the opportunity for reappointment for a second three-year term making a maximum of six years. The contribution of all members is assessed annually by the Chairs and similarly the contribution of the Chairs is also assessed.