Recruitment without Selection process

[AeschylusandtheTortoise]

The organisation in which I work has recently undergone a change which has resulted in the creation of a number of new senior posts. These appear to have been given, or to be about to be given, to individuals currently working in the organisation, without any sort of recruitment or selection process. No one else has been given the opportunity to apply for these roles. This seems to be unfair, but is it actually illegal?

Not illegal no. There is no requirement to hold an open recruitment process for any vacant post. There is a requirement not to discriminate so if the effect of these particular posts being appointed to without an open process is that someone/people from a protected group have been discriminated against, then that is illegal.

The simplest example of that would be if there is a woman on maternity leave who could be considered a candidate for one of the posts and was not given the opportunity to apply.

Thank you, flowery, I thought as much!

Bit rubbish I agree, and not particularly fair, although if the recruiting managers are already fixed on these people there's obviously an argument that putting people to the trouble of applying when they are not going to be successful is unfair.

Obviously ideally, they'd have a genuinely open mind about other candidates...