Civil Service (United Kingdom)
The Civil Service of the United Kingdom is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports His Majesty's Government, which is led by a cabinet of ministers chosen by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.[1]
Organisation overview
- Simon Case, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service
- Cat Little, Chief Operating Officer of the Civil Service
As in other states that employ the Westminster political system, the Civil Service, often known by the metonym of Whitehall, forms an inseparable part of the British government. The executive decisions of government ministers are implemented by the Civil Service. Civil servants are employees of the Crown and not of the British parliament. Civil servants also have some traditional and statutory responsibilities which to some extent protect them from being used for the political advantage of the party in power. Senior civil servants may be called to account to Parliament.
In general use, the term civil servant in the United Kingdom does not include all public sector employees. Although there is no fixed legal definition, the term is usually defined as a "servant of the Crown working in a civil capacity who is not the holder of a political (or judicial) office; the holder of certain other offices in respect of whose tenure of office special provision has been made; [or] a servant of the Crown in a personal capacity paid from the Civil List".[2] As such, the civil service does not include government ministers (who are politically appointed); members of the British Armed Forces; police officers; officers of local government authorities; employees of some non-departmental public bodies;[3] officers or staff of either of the Houses of Parliament;[4][5] employees of the National Health Service (NHS); or staff of the Royal Household.[6] As at the end of March 2021 there were 484,880 civil servants in the Civil Service, an increase of 6.23 per cent on the previous year.[7]
The Northern Ireland Civil Service is a separate civil service in the United Kingdom.
Political neutrality[edit]
The Civil Service is a politically neutral body, with the function of impartially implementing the policy programme of the elected government.[35][36][37]
Like all servants of the Crown, civil servants are legally barred from standing for election as Members of Parliament as they must uphold the duty of being politically neutral.[38] Under regulations first adopted in 1954 and revised in 1984, members of the Senior Civil Service (the top management grades) are barred from holding office in a political party or publicly expressing controversial political viewpoints, while less senior civil servants at an intermediate (managerial) level must generally seek permission to participate in political activities. The most junior civil servants are permitted to participate in political activities, but must be politically neutral in the exercise of their duties.[38] In periods prior to General Elections, the Civil Service undergoes purdah which further restricts their activities.
All civil servants are subject to the Official Secrets Acts 1911 to 1989, meaning that they may not disclose sensitive government information. Since 1998, there have also been restrictions on contact between civil servants and lobbyists; this followed an incident known as Lobbygate, where an undercover reporter for The Observer, posing as a business leader, was introduced by a lobbyist to a senior Downing Street official who promised privileged access to government ministers.[39][40] The Committee on Standards in Public Life, also created in 1998, is responsible for regulation of contacts between public officials and lobbyists.
The increasing influence of politically appointed special advisers in government departments can reduce the political neutrality of public administration. In Thatcher's government, Alan Walters was an official adviser from 1981 to 1984, and again in 1989.[41] Walters' criticisms "of many aspects of Treasury policy, particularly in relation to exchange rate policy" and Thatcher's refusal to dismiss him led to Nigel Lawson's resignation as chancellor in 1989.[41] Thatcher also claimed that the 1981 budget, which increased taxes during the recession and was criticised by 364 economists, had been devised by Walters.[41]
In 2000, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair was criticised for appointing 20 special advisers (compared to eight under his predecessor John Major) and for the fact that the total salary cost of special advisers across all government departments had reached £4 million.[42] In 2001, Stephen Byers, then Secretary of State for Transport, was forced to resign because of the actions of his special adviser Jo Moore, who instructed a departmental civil servant, Martin Sixsmith, that September 11, 2001, would be "a good day to bury bad news"; this was seen as inappropriate political manipulation of the Civil Service.[43] In particular, under the administration of Tony Blair, the influence of two Downing Street special advisers, Jonathan Powell and Alastair Campbell, both of whom were given formal power over Downing Street civil servants, provoked widespread criticism.[44]
The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government of 2010–2015 had proposed introducing a more American style system where senior civil servants, such as permanent secretaries, became political appointees.[37] However, this was dropped after it was considered that the existing permanent civil service style was better-suited to the government of the United Kingdom.
The political neutrality of the civil service was called into question during the 2016 – 2019 Brexit negotiations, with political figures such as Brexit Party Leader Nigel Farage accusing the civil service of having a "pro-Remain bias".[45][46] In response Sir Mark Sedwill, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, issued a letter to all Department Chiefs warning that Brexit was having an "unsettling" effect on civil servants.[47][48]
In March 2023, Home Secretary Suella Braverman, in an email sent to Conservative Party supporters, criticised civil servants as being part of an "activist blob of left-wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour Party" which blocked government efforts to stop small boat crossings. Dave Penman, general secretary of the Association of First Division Civil Servants, accused Braverman of breaching the ministerial code. In response, a Conservative Party spokesperson said that the Home Secretary had not seen the wording of the email prior to its sending.[49]
A privilege day is a day of annual leave granted to employees of the civil service. These are in addition to bank holidays.
Before 2013, there were 2.5 privilege days each year:[68][69]
Since reforms by the Cabinet Office in 2013, the Maundy Thursday (Easter) and Christmas privilege days are no longer available for new civil servants. For civil servants who were in their positions when the changes came into force, these 1.5 days have been converted into additional annual leave. Because the Queen's Birthday privilege day was granted by Queen Elizabeth II after her coronation, it would have been difficult for the Cabinet Office to abolish it by an administrative measure, so the Cabinet Office decided to retain this as a privilege day.[70] Privilege days still count as "working days" for the purpose of freedom of information requests.[71]
In popular culture[edit]
The BBC television series Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister are a satire on the British civil service and its relationship with government ministers. The portrayal is a caricature of the civil service predominantly characterised through Sir Nigel Hawthorne's Sir Humphrey Appleby.
The Thick of It, first broadcast in 2005, is a similar BBC television series that has been called "the 21st century's answer to Yes Minister". The series portrays a modernised version of the interactions between the Civil Service and the Government (chiefly in the form of special advisors), as well as the media's involvement in the process.
There is a long history of civil servants who are also literary authors, who often comment on their own institutions, including such writers as Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, John Dryden, Andrew Marvell, Robert Burns, William Wordsworth and Anthony Trollope, and diarist Samuel Pepys.