Ministers and Mandarins and Select Committees
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1987.tb01722.x |
| Author | Brian Thompson |
| Date | 01 July 1987 |
| Published date | 01 July 1987 |
REPORTS
OF
COMMITTEES
MINISTERS
AND
MANDARINS
AND
SELECT
COMMITTEES
Introduction
THE
relationship between Mrs. Thatcher and the civil service has
not been particularly harmonious. Civil service manpower has been
reduced, trade union membership has been curtailed at G.C.H.Q.
Cheltenham, and pay rises (excepting very senior civil servants)
have been kept low. Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in poor
morale within the service, and this has manifested itself in industrial
disputes and a fair degree
of
“leaking” by civil servants. It has also
been alleged that, under Mrs. Thatcher, “politicisation”
of
the
higher civil service has occurred. These points have concerned the
Treasury and Civil Service Committee (T.C.S.C.). The promulgation
of
Sir Robert Armstrong’s Memorandum “The Duties and
Responsibilities
of
Civil Servants In Relation to Ministers”’ was
taken as the peg on which to hang the Committee’s investigation
into the relationship between civil servants and ministers.
The T.C.S.C. report
Civil Servants and Ministers: Duties and
Responsibilities*
was published in May
1986
and two months later
the Government published its re~ponse.~
The Westland affair not only overlapped with the T.C.S.C.
inquiry but also overshadowed it. The investigation
of
the affair
was left to the Defence and Trade
&
Industry Select Committees.
The Defence Committee’s reports4 were published on the same day
as the Government’s response to the T.C.S.C. and it was in the
response to the Defence Committee’s reports5 that the Government
announced its intention to give new instructions to civil servants
about the evidence they could give to select committees. This
announcement on accountability outraged the select committees.
The Government engaged in consultation following this hostile
reception and subsequently amended its instructions. This note
examines the T.C.S.C. report, the Government’s response and the
Government’s instruction to civil servants, the select committees’
reaction to that and the modification this caused. It is suggested
The full text
of
the Memorandum is reproduced in Volume
I1
of
the committee’s
re ort, see n.2
for
citation. Hereafter this volume
Ev.
Seventh Report Treasury and Civil Service Committee, Session 1985-6 H.C. 92
1-11,
Hereafter
Vol.
I
Report.
’
Civil Servants md Ministers: Duties and Responsibilities. Government Response to the
Seventh Reporf
from
the Treasury and Civil Service Committee
Session 1985-86. Cmnd.
9841. Hereafter
Response.
Defence Committee
The Defence Implications
of
the Future
of
Westland plc Third
Report Session 1985-88
H.C. 518 and
Westland plc: The Government’s Decision-Making
Fourth Report Session 1985-86
H.C. 519. Trade and Industry Committee
Westland plc
Second Report Session 1986-87
H.C. 176.
Government Response to the Third and Fourth Reports from the Defence Committee
Session 1985-86. Cmnd. 9916. Hereafter
Response
(Defence).
492
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