CHANGE IN THE CIVIL SERVICE
| Published date | 01 December 1994 |
| Author | RICHARD A. CHAPMAN |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1994.tb00811.x |
| Date | 01 December 1994 |
CHANGE
IN
THE CIVIL SERVICE
.~
RICHARD A. CHAPMAN
In
July
1994
three documents of major significance were published on the British
civil service. Most important was the Government’s White Paper,
The Civil
Service: Continuity and Change
(Cm
2627).
The other
two
were the Cabinet Office
(Ofice of Public Service and Science) Recruitment Studies Team’s reports,
Responsibilities
for
Recruitment
to
the Civil Service
and
Review
of
Fast
Stream
Recruitment.
These documents have their immediate origins
in
the widely publicized
Oughton Report from the Efficiency Unit
(1993).
Many commentators would
trace the real origins
of
all of these to the Fulton Report on
The Civil Service
(1966-1968)
-
the last major commission of inquiry into the civil service. How-
ever, the government
sees
the White Paper as a continuation of its efforts to
introduce management reform into the civil service
(246
HC
Deb.,
6s.,
col.
987-1002,13
July
1994),
and tends to emphasize the more recent antecedents of
its reforms, including the Financial Management Initiative, the Next Steps
Programme, the Efficiency Reviews and market testing. The contents of the
latest publications, even allowing for the invitation to comment on the White
Paper statements, show that, far from running out of steam, the pace for what
the government
sees
as reform is increasing.
This article will first give a brief summary of the contents of the latest reports,
then offer comments from the perspective of
a
student of public administration.
The abbreviated textual references are to the paragraph numbers in the reports.
THE
ClVIL SERVICE: CONTINUITY
AND
CHANGE
The White Paper’s associations with continuity focus first on quotations from
Lord Callaghan, Lady Thatcher and John Major. All, in recent years, emphasized
the great virtues of the British civil service.
It
is
the ‘bulwark of the constitution’;
its ‘sheer professionalism
...
is something other countries with different systems
Richard A. Chapman is Professor
of
Politics at the University of Durham.
Public Administration
Vol.
72
Winter 1994 (599-610)
0
Basil Blackwell Ltd.
1994,
108 Cowley
Road,
Oxford OX4
lJF,
UK
and
238
Main Street, Cambridge,
MA
02142, USA.
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