The Senior Staff Commission is one of the senior organs of the Civil Service. In accordance with the provisions of Article 9 of Law 30/1984 of 2 August on Measures for the Reform of the Civil Service, it is set up as the collegiate coordinating, documentation and advisory body for the development of personnel policy in the service of the State Administration.

The origin of the Higher Commission on Personnel dates back to Law 109/1963 of 20 July on the Bases of State Civil Servants. It was understood that the existence of a central body responsible for ensuring the full application of civil service rules was crucial and that, in view of the problems inherent in civil servants as a whole, it carried out a policy of unity; this was seen as one of the vulnerable points of the Staff Regulations of one thousand nine hundred and eighteen, which greatly contributed to the frustration of their purposes.

Therefore, the above-mentioned rule, following examples of comparative law, establishes on the basis of its model a Senior Staff Commission as a fundamental body in the field of civil service. This body, in its initial form, was intended to achieve effective action to guarantee the rights and interests of staff and to harmonize them with the requirements of the administrative services, with broad and superior advisory and inspection, impetus and coordination functions.

This first normative provision was reflected in the articulated text of the Law on Civil Servants of the State, approved by Decree 315/1964 of February 7. The Senior Staff Commission, among other Senior Civil Service Bodies, is established in articles 9 to 12 and 18 to 21.

The Deputy Secretaries of the various Civil Ministerial Departments, the Directors-General of the Treasury and Budgets, the Technical Secretary-General of the Government Presidency, the President of the Board and the Director of the Centre for the Training and Improvement of Officials were members of the Presidency of the Government and chaired by the Deputy Minister.

The General Secretariat of the Higher Commission established a Register of Personnel in the service of the State Civil Administration, where new staff members were to be registered in the service of the Civil Administration upon their appointment or recruitment and to notify them of a number corresponding to their registration. Similarly, dismissals in the service of officials should also be communicated.

Its first rules of procedure, adopted by the Government Presidential Decree of 19 November 1964, defined the Higher Staff Commission as the inter-ministerial coordination body, consultations and proposals in the field of personnel. Among its tasks was the mandatory report on a wide range of measures in the field of staff to the services of public administrations: personnel policy projects, organizational templates and job classification, call for competition, training of officials, remuneration, separation from service, or the approval of temporary staff recruitment, among others.

Thereafter, the relationship of the Senior Staff Commission with the Directorate-General for Civil Service will be outlined. Decree 2764/1967 of 27 November 1967. It establishes the Directorate-General for Civil Service and, with regard to the Senior Staff Commission, deletes the posts of Vice-Chairman, at the level of Assistant Secretary and Secretary-General, at the level of Director-General of the Senior Staff Commission, whose functions and services were integrated into the newly established Directorate General for Civil Service, and whose Director-General would be the Vice-Chairman of the Commission. By Decree 245/68 of 15 February, of the Presidency of the Government, the General Directorate of the Civil Service will be entrusted with all the Administrative Services of the Commission, as well as the preparation of projects and provisions relating to the personnel regime of the Institutional Administration.

After the adoption of the Spanish Constitution in 1978, the same Commission model will initially continue. It will be with the Law 30/1984, of 2 August, of Measures for the Reform of the Civil Service that is innovated in the organization and functions of the Higher Commission of Personnel. In its article 9, the Senior Staff Commission was set up as a collegiate coordinating, documentation and advisory body for the development of personnel policy in the service of the State Administration.

In the course of the aforementioned law, a new regulation regulating the organization and functions of the Higher Commission on Personnel, Royal Decree 453/1985 of 6 March, restructuring the composition of the Higher Commission on Personnel, abolishing its Standing Committee, and establishing a working paper, of a technical nature, for the preparation, study and proposal of the matters to be considered by the Committee.

It also modified the composition of the Commission, adapting it to the structure of the State Administration after the approval of the Spanish Constitution, giving entry to it representatives of the Ministry of Defence and the Social Security Administration. Among its functions, at this new stage, they highlight: the proposal of unified criteria for personnel action in the field of state administration and the adoption of measures it deems most appropriate for civil service management. The task of issuing a mandatory report on draft rules of general application to the civil service was maintained, as well as studying and resolving any enquiries concerning staff made by the Ministry Departments and other public administrations, as well as the documentary management competences.

In 1990, the model of the Senior Staff Commission will be amended again by Royal Decree 1085/1990 of 31 August. The innovations produced in the general legal system of the Civil Service oblige the body to adapt; the mandatory reporting procedure of the Commission is also abolished in cases where, in the absence of a legal reserve, the function can be taken over by the relevant management bodies. The consultative and coordinating nature of the Senior Staff Commission is thus enhanced as a permanent communication body for those responsible for human resources management serving the State Administration.

The latest revision of the model of organization and functioning of the Higher Commission of Personnel will be carried out by Royal Decree 349/2001 of 4 April. With regard to the composition, the Royal Decree introduces as a significant novelty the incorporation into the Commission, as spokespersons, of the Assistant Secretaries of the different Ministerial Departments, in line with their status as Senior Chiefs of Staff, attributed by Law 6/1997, of 14 April, on the Organization and Functioning of the General Administration of the State. On the other hand, the Committee is internally structured in plenary and the Standing Committee, establishing a flexible mechanism for the distribution of cases between the two, which may allow meetings to take place as often as the needs of each moment require.

As far as the functions are concerned, it seeks to strengthen those of a consultative and coordinating nature, not only those of regulatory production on the human resources regime of the General Administration of the State, but also of the measures and criteria for action in the field of management, planning and management and of the criteria for applying the legal system of the civil service.