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Ministers and Civil Servants

Absolutely: we have to build in checks and balances in other ways. Traditionally, we have been short of them. We have had a strong Executive backed up by a kind of majoritarian politics that says, ““If you win an election, you get to control the show.”” That has changed slightly, because we have put more checks and balances in, particularly under this Government—we now have human rights and freedom of information legislation, devolution and so on. We do not quite conform to the traditional picture but, on the whole, my hon. Friend is right. We concluded from our examination that the evidence for politicisation in the sense of inappropriate political involvement with the civil service does not stack up. I do not believe that it stacked up under the Thatcher Government and it does not with this Government. Our conclusion, starkly, was that"““despite the regular accusations of politicisation, Britain…remains singularly unpoliticised””." That is because we have an in-built distinction between administration and politics. As my hon. Friend indicated, that provides an in-built probity in Government.