This report announces MSPB's launching of a reexamination of the prevalence of prohibited personnel practices within the Federal Government, and is issuing this retrospective report to provide its stakeholders a foundation of past MSPB research that explored these issues.  MSPB has conducted extensive research to analyze the occurrence of prohibited personnel practices in the Federal Government, as well as adherence to their complement, the merit system principles.  Selected previous reports summarized in this report note that the percentage of employees reporting discrimination based on ethnicity/race, sex, age, and religion have declined over time, while an increasing percentage of Federal employees believe that they are being treated fairly.  However, MSPB also acknowledges that the Federal Government still has work to do to ensure a workplace free of prohibited personnel practices.