The public service review, announced by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and former minister responsible for the public service Kelly O'Dwyer, is set to consider whether the public service is fit for purpose and how it can respond to technological change.

Of the 698 submissions made to the review, 543 have been made publicly or anonymously. Contributors had the option to make a public, named submission, or to have the submission published anonymously or to make it confidentially straight to the review.

Of the 155 confidential submissions, 20 per cent were from organisations, a spokeswoman from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet said, slightly higher than the general rate of 15 per cent from organisations.

The Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Infrastructure, the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources and the Australian Tax Office have been the only major government organisations to make public submissions. In all cases, comments were made about restrictions on staffing levels through the average staffing level cap, with frank statements about the difficulties faced in each agency.

Major departments like Finance, Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Public Service Commission and Industry have faced criticism over their lack of public submissions. Industry secretary Heather Smith's speech regarding the lack of a "burning platform" in the public service was one of the factors in the lead up to the review.

Smaller agencies like the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Office of Innovation and Science, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the Digital Transformation Agency make up the list of agencies to have made public submissions to the review.

The public service's Indigenous SES Network Steering Committee also made a public submission.

In an interview with Fairfax Media in July, review chair David Thodey said privacy considerations were behind the decision to allow confidential submissions.