Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service (GCHQ) is a British intelligence agency that provides signals intelligence to the British government and armed forces. Prior to 1983 its existence was not acknowledged, despite the fact that it openly recruited graduates. Following a spy scandal in 1983, the organisation became known to the public, and the government of Margaret Thatcher decided a year later that employees would not be allowed to join a trade union for national security reasons. The Minister for the Civil Service is a position held "ex officio" by the Prime Minister. This was done through an Order in Council, an exercise of the Royal
Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service The document Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service is a text document of the United Nations System that lays out a set of standards of conduct for international civil servants. These standards were introduced in 2013 by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) to replace the "Standards of Conduct in the International Civil Service", which had been introduced in 1954 and revised in 2001. The report on "Standards of Conduct in the International Civil Service" by the International Civil Service Advisory Board (ICSAB), which preceded the ICSC, was highly recognized.