PASC urges action on civil service Bill

29 Mar 07
MPs and the public standards watchdog this week called on ministers to implement a civil service Act as a matter of urgency.

30 March 2007

MPs and the public standards watchdog this week called on ministers to implement a civil service Act as a matter of urgency.

The public administration select committee urged greater clarity on the relationship between civil servants and ministers.

Its report, published on March 26, said it was no longer enough to lay responsibility for all delivery failures at the feet of ministers. But, it added, neither could civil servants be made scapegoats when failures were not their fault.

The committee said a new 'public service bargain', underpinned by a good governance code, was needed. It cited the Home Office's new compact between ministers and officials as the kind of agreement that was required.

PASC chair Tony Wright said claims that the civil service was being politicised missed the point. He said: '[We should not] allow the knee-jerk charge of politicisation to prevent us reviewing the role of ministers in civil service appointments and of those charged with running key public bodies.

'We should also have the confidence to introduce a civil service Bill to enshrine the fundamental constitutional relationship.'

Demands for such an Act also came from Sir Alistair Graham, outgoing chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. Graham used his final address, to the committee's annual open meeting on March 27, to highlight issues that should be attended to by the next prime minister.

A civil service Act would provide an explicit basis to guide the behaviour of civil servants, ministers and their special advisers, he said. 'All political parties now agree on the principle of an Act. What is needed is the political will.'

Graham added that Tony Blair's successor should also examine the case for tightening up the rules that govern MPs' expenses and allowances and tackling the potential for electoral fraud.

The committee has also recommended moving from a system of household registration to individual voter registration, which would help combat fraud.

Graham, who is due to step down next month, refused to comment on speculation that he had effectively been sacked after irking the prime minister.

Like his predecessors, he was serving only one three-year term, he said. The decision on Graham's successor is likely to be deferred until after Blair's departure.

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