Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) Recruitment Website Nationality Guidance (Monitoring Period)
Summary of Information
Following the conclusion of the compliance case ‘Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) Recruitment Website Nationality Guidance’, the NICS agreed that they would update each “Right to Work and Nationality Requirements” section of the “Candidate Information Booklet” on each job application, to correctly mirror the beginning pages of their own Nationality Guidance document and include: EFTA citizens; citizens with EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) Pre-Settled Status and those with a valid pending EUSS application that have the right to work in the UK.
Summary of Actions and Evidence
Originally, the NICS were given 30 days to accomplish the agreed action. However, due to technical issues with their systems, this proved difficult and resulted in a delay in reaching this outcome. However, following continuous communication between both NICS and the IMA, the NICS have now updated the wording on each “Candidate Information Booklet” currently active on their website with the agreed additional wording:
“…(iv) Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, or Liechtenstein with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS); or
(v) Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, or Liechtenstein have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)…”
This now covers all the previously missing cohorts of citizens and will be utilised on all future job “Candidate Information Booklets” going forward.
Following this, the IMA also discovered that there was an error on the flowchart at the very bottom of the NICS “Nationality Guidance” document that appeared to not take into account those with pending EUSS applications being eligible for the job application on the website. This has been addressed with NICS who have fixed the issue.
Summary of Decision
Despite the delay in successfully implementing the new wording, the NICS have now put the new agreed wording into action, along with the additional edits requested to the flowchart in the Nationality Guidance. This has assured the IMA that all citizens that are eligible to apply for the jobs offered, will no longer be at risk of misunderstanding if they are eligible or not. Instead, this will allow all eligible citizens to know that they are in fact eligible to apply for these job roles within Northern Ireland when they read the “Candidate Information Booklet” and “Nationality Guidance” documents. Therefore, the case can now be closed as Early Case Resolution, due to being resolved by the actions of the NICS.
However, should the IMA receive any further information or complaints about this or related issues, these will be considered on their merits and in line with the IMA’s internal processes, and the IMA remains able to take further action on this issue in future in accordance with its statutory functions should this be needed.
