How has the role of the civil service changed in recent years?

A detailed Summary of How has the role of the civil service changed in recent years?

The civil service is an administrative system, which consists of a body of government official who are employed in civil occupations. The civil service is the single aspect of British government most renowned for its stability and reluctance to change. For many it had been the object of criticism from all parts of the political spectrum for its power without accountability, and for bias in the use of that power. British constitutional theory makes clear distinctions between the political role of ministers and the administrative role of civil servants. Ministers are in charge of Departments and responsible to Parliament for running them whereas the civil servants advise ministers on policy and implement government decisions.

Three major features of the civil servants which is their permanence, which means that civil servants are career officials prepared to serve government of any party, while ministers come and go, civil servants remain. Political Neutrality is another feature which means that British civil servants are required to be politically impartial, not allowing their own political opinions influence their actions and loyally carrying out decisions whether they agree with them or not; they must not engage in any partisa

mobility both between departments and in the recruitment of specialists from the outside world. Fulton's radical plans were never fully implemented; the main reason for this was that it was the civil service themselves who had to implement the reforms.

Margaret Thatcher proved to be a great threat to the civil service. She wanted to change the running of the civil service because she believed they would try to 'water down' (as she put it) her policies. The main way she threatened their neutrality was by appointing servants who she knew supported her, for example Peter Middleton who was promoted over the heads of more senior people because he shared her views, and Derek Rayner who was appointed with no previous experience except for working at Marks and Spencer. It was in this context that the accusation of politicisation arose. A leading criticism of the Thatcher- Major years was that the civil service was 'politicised'. There are three main concerns behind this charge. First, Mrs Thatcher looked for a different kind of civil servant, offering a 'can do' approach rather than 'whingeing analysis and integrity', and combined this with a close interest in top appointments. The worry was that this would produce an atmosphere in !

which civil servants told ministers what t

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 863
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics

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How has the role of the civil service changed in recent years?

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