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Tag Archives for: "Ministers"
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Why do politicians sometimes ignore scientific advice?

Martin Stanley By Martin Stanley Filed Under: All posts, Featured, Westminster Watch, Whitehall Watch Posted: March 9, 2015

Respected scientist Sir Paul Nurse recently expressed his distress that politicians sometimes “ignore” scientific evidence.  Here is a slightly different take on the issue from the perspective of a recent senior civil servant. At one level, of course, I agree with Sir Paul.  I can’t prove it but I suspect that many if not most […]

Tagged With: civil servants, drug policy, Ministers

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Civil Service Accountability to the Public Part III

Martin Stanley By Martin Stanley Filed Under: All posts, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 23, 2015

In the latest blog in our series on the Civil Service , Martin Stanley continues his examination of whether senior officials should be more accountable – especially to MPs – for the advice that they give to Ministers.  Whatever the strength of the arguments for and against greater civil service accountability, there does seem to […]

Tagged With: Civil Service, Ministers, Osmotherly Rules, parliament, permanent secretaries, SROs

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Civil Service Accountability to the Public part II

Martin Stanley By Martin Stanley Filed Under: Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 19, 2015

In the second of three blogs Martin Stanley examines whether senior officials should be more accountable – especially to MPs – for the advice that they give to Ministers. This is the fourth post in our series on the Civil Service. How would officials react to greater public scrutiny?  Most of them, I suspect, would […]

Tagged With: Civil Service, government, Ministers, MPs, parliament, Whitehall

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Civil Service Accountability to the Public

Martin Stanley By Martin Stanley Filed Under: All posts, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 14, 2015

In the second of our series of posts exploring the corridors of power in Whitehall, former senior civil servant and public sector chief executive Martin Stanley discusses how we are governed and the tensions between the needs of Ministers, MPs and the wider public.  The electorate clearly believe that ‘the Westminster Village’ is incompetent and/or […]

Tagged With: Civil Service, government, Ministers, MPs, westminster, Whitehall

Doing the BIS: Lord Mandelson’s New Empire

Colin Talbot By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted: June 10, 2009

The two-year-old Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) has been merged with the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) to create a new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (DBIS or is it just BIS?).

Tagged With: Departments, Ministers, Structures, Whitehall

Will Hutton on Prime Ministerial power and public administration

Colin Talbot By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted: June 7, 2009

In a great article in today’s Oberserver, Will Hutton reviews the origins of the current political crisis in the UK in the constitutional set-up which confers monarchical powers on Prime Ministers, something I have written about frequently here and in the pages of Public Finance – see for example this one…

Tagged With: Constitution, Departments, Ministers, Prime Minister, Whitehall

Government Learning – an oxymoron?

Colin Talbot By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted: March 2, 2009

A new NAO Report – Helping Government Learn – sets out to encourage better policies and practice for ‘organisational learning’ in government.

Tagged With: Civil Service, government, Ministers, NAO, public services, Westminister, Whitehall

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