Anyone appointed to the Public Defender Service will be employed as a civil servant, and recruited on the basis of the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles.

These principles determine that selection is made on merit on the basis of fair and open competition:

Merit means the appointment of the best available person: no one should be appointed to a job unless they are competent to do it, and the job must be offered to the person who would do it best.

Fair means there is no bias in the assessment of candidates. Selection processes must be objective, impartial and applied consistently.

Open means that job opportunities must be advertised publicly and potential candidates given reasonable access to information about the job and its requirements, and about the selection process.

The Commission recognises that in some circumstances it may be right to allow appointments to be made outside of the principle of selection on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. Any such exception should not undermine this fundamental principle.

Such appointments by exception are usually short-term; for example secondments which promote the exchange of ideas and experience.

For a national recruitment exercise it is our practice to advertise in the English language. When recruiting for vacancies specifically for Wales, these will be advertised bilingually. Notices will be in Welsh in Welsh language publications, if required.