Behaviours
The Four Civil Service Values and How Panels Test Them
Published
The four Civil Service values are integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality. They come from the Civil Service Code, which forms part of every civil servant's contract, and they apply identically at every grade.
They are not the same thing as the nine behaviours, and confusing the two is common. Values are constitutional standards of conduct. Behaviours are the assessment framework you are scored against. You are rarely asked about the values by name and you can lose an interview by breaching one.
What each value actually means
The Code's own definitions are short. What they mean in practice is more specific than the words suggest.
| Value | The Code says | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Integrity | Put the obligations of public service above your own personal interests | Declare conflicts before anyone asks. Do not accept gifts or hospitality that could look like influence. Do not use official information for private benefit. |
| Honesty | Be truthful and open | Correct the record when you are wrong. Do not let a misleading impression stand because it is convenient. Tell ministers things they do not want to hear, early. |
| Objectivity | Base advice and decisions on rigorous analysis of the evidence | Follow the evidence where it goes, including away from the answer that was expected. Set out the case against your own recommendation. |
| Impartiality | Act solely according to the merits of the case and serve governments of different political persuasions equally well | Give the same quality of advice whoever is in office. Keep personal politics out of the work, and observe the restrictions on political activity that apply to your grade. |
Impartiality is the one that surprises people. It is not neutrality of opinion in private; it is a professional obligation to serve the elected government's programme as well as you would serve a different one, including policies you would not have voted for.
Values and behaviours are different things
Worth separating cleanly, because adverts use both words.
The nine behaviours are what Success Profiles scores: Seeing the Big Picture, Changing and Improving, Making Effective Decisions, Leadership, Communicating and Influencing, Working Together, Developing Self and Others, Managing a Quality Service, Delivering at Pace. Your advert names three to five of them and every interview question maps to one. The behaviours guide covers what each rewards.
The four values are not scored on a scale. They function as a floor. An answer that demonstrates good judgement while quietly describing a breach does not get partial credit for the judgement.
Where the two meet is in how you are assessed overall: Success Profiles sits inside the Code, so the five Success Profiles elements assume the values rather than test them separately.
How panels test them without asking
Very few interviews contain the question "what are the Civil Service values?". Several contain questions that are values tests wearing other clothes.
The recurring shapes:
- The pressure question. "Tell me about a time you were asked to do something you disagreed with." This is objectivity and honesty. A good answer states the disagreement, records it, escalates through the right route, and then implements the decision properly. An answer that quietly does it badly, or that briefs colleagues against it, fails.
- The mistake question. "Tell me about a time you got something wrong." This is honesty. Panels are listening for whether you raised it yourself and how fast. Discovering-it-and-fixing-it-quietly is a weaker answer than telling someone immediately.
- The conflict-of-interest scenario. Often posed as a hypothetical: a supplier you know socially, a case involving a relative, a job application from a friend. The scoring answer declares it before being asked and removes itself from the decision.
- The inconvenient evidence question. "Tell me about a time the data did not support what people expected." This is objectivity, and the mark is in what you did with the finding, not in having found it.
- The confidentiality question. Sometimes framed around media or social media. Not commenting publicly on contested policy you work on is the expected answer, and it is a real restriction rather than a preference.
What a values breach sounds like in an answer
The failures are rarely dramatic. They are asides that candidates do not notice themselves making.
"So I just went ahead and did it my way once he'd left." That is a breach of the obligation to implement decisions properly, offered as evidence of initiative. "I didn't mention it because it would have delayed everything." That is honesty, offered as evidence of pace. "I knew the supplier already so I could push it through faster." That is integrity, offered as evidence of networks.
Each of those sentences is doing real damage while the candidate believes it is helping. Worth auditing your prepared examples specifically for them, because the instinct that produces them is the instinct to sound decisive.
What to do with this before an interview
Three things, none of which take long.
Read the Civil Service Code itself once. It is short, it is published on GOV.UK, and it is the authoritative text where this page is a summary.
Then check your prepared examples against the four values, asking of each: does anything in this story describe conduct I would not want written down. If so, retell that part or change the example.
Finally, have one example ready where you disagreed with a decision and implemented it well anyway. It is the single most useful values-adjacent story to own, it covers several of the question shapes above, and most candidates have one without realising it is worth telling. How to build it into a scoring answer is in how to answer behaviour questions.
Common questions
Integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality. They are set out in the Civil Service Code, which forms part of every civil servant's terms of employment, and they apply to everyone from AA to Permanent Secretary.
The four values are constitutional standards of conduct from the Civil Service Code. The nine behaviours are the assessment framework used in recruitment and performance. Values say how you must conduct yourself; behaviours describe what effective performance looks like and are what you are scored on.
Rarely by name, and frequently in substance. Panels test them through scenario questions about pressure to change advice, conflicts of interest, mistakes you made, and how you handled a decision you disagreed with. An answer that breaches a value undermines the whole interview.
Serving the government of the day equally well whatever your own views, and not letting personal or political opinions affect your advice or delivery. It also restricts political activity, more tightly at senior grades, and is why civil servants do not brief against ministers or campaign publicly on contested policy.
The document setting out the four values and the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. It forms part of your contract of employment, and it includes a route to raise concerns with the Civil Service Commission if you are asked to act against it.
Yes. The Code is contractual, so a serious breach such as falsifying records, leaking, or concealing a conflict of interest is a disciplinary matter and can end an appointment. Most breaches raised in practice are resolved through the internal process rather than dismissal.
Practise before the real thing
Reading how panels score is step one. The candidates who pass are the ones who practised saying their answers out loud — and got scored feedback against the official Civil Service Behaviours framework before interview day.
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