The Political Environment

The public servant works within a framework of political institutions. British civil servants work under the direction of a political Minister who is in turn accountable to Parliament, to his colleagues in the Government and, more remotely, to the political party of which he is a member. Each line of accountability imposes its own discipline on the Minister and limits his department’s scope for manoeuvre. Civil servants are constantly aware of the political implications of their work and many of them spend much of their time servicing the political machine by preparing answers to parliamentary questions, briefs for debates and material for the Minister’s correspondence. 1 They are, of course, exposed to many influences that do not arise from the central political machine. They have to deal with the public, and with the interest groups and cause groups that make up their special ‘publics’. They have to bargain with colleagues in other departments, notably in the Treasury. These relationships have developed outside the parliamentary system. But in an important sense they are conditioned by it; in the last resort a dissatisfied group can appeal to political levels and this possibility sets the tone for relationships lower down. Without Parliament there would be no final sanction for the weight given to impartiality, fairness and consistency in the daily work of government departments. 2