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Adjournment debate on Thursday, 30 October 2008, in the House of Commons, led by Tony Wright. The answering member was Lord Watson of Wyre Forest.

Ministers and Civil Servants

Westminster hall debate on a motion for the adjournment on Ministers and civil servants. [Relevant documents: Public Administration Committee third report of session 2006-07, HC 122, on Politics and Administration: Ministers and Civil Servants, and the Government response, HC 1057.]

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
481 c305-48WH 
Session
2007-08
Department
Cabinet Office
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Related items
Proceeding contributions
Lord Tyrie | 481 c334-6WH (Link to this contribution) That is a good description of the things that advisers certainly should not do. Of course, that is e...
Tony Wright | 481 c336WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman tests my patience. I have noticed in the past that his ability to reinvent histor...
Show all contributions (68)
Lord Tyrie | 481 c336WH (Link to this contribution) I think the hon. Gentleman protests a little too much. I have not made any allegations of the type t...
Kelvin Hopkins | 481 c333-4WH (Link to this contribution) I am interested that several hon. Members have suggested that civil servants were quite happy about ...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c334WH (Link to this contribution) I shall come on to Cabinets in a moment. The hon. Gentleman is right to imply—at least I think he wa...
Lord Watson of Wyre Forest | 481 c334WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is an acknowledged historian on the location of desks in Downing street. I reassu...
Tony Wright | 481 c332-3WH (Link to this contribution) I am trying to forge a constructive consensus. It seems to me that there is unanimity that the centr...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c332WH (Link to this contribution) I totally agree, and I do not know how the hon. Gentleman is managing to suggest that I disagree wit...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c333WH (Link to this contribution) Several hon. Members want to intervene. I shall allow the hon. Member for Luton, North to do so and ...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c333WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman and I are still like ships passing in the night, despite his best efforts to forg...
Gordon Prentice | 481 c332WH (Link to this contribution) I think that I am going to say something helpful to my friend, the Chairman of the Committee. When L...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c332WH (Link to this contribution) I give way first to the hon. Member for Pendle.
Lord Tyrie | 481 c332WH (Link to this contribution) I completely agree, and those were some of the functions that I undertook—for example, producing a f...
Tony Wright | 481 c331-2WH (Link to this contribution) I am trying to agree with the hon. Gentleman as much as I can, but I cannot agree with everything he...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c330-1WH (Link to this contribution) Yes, and on just about everything I can think of. There are certainly quite a few of them. I am conc...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c329-30WH (Link to this contribution) That is all ancient history now. There certainly were from a monetary perspective, although there ar...
Kelvin Hopkins | 481 c328WH (Link to this contribution) I think that the hon. Gentleman has answered my question. I was going to ask whether there were any ...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c328WH (Link to this contribution) First, I apologise to you, Mr. Jones, and to everybody else who has been here throughout the debate....
Kelvin Hopkins | 481 c326-8WH (Link to this contribution) It is the role that is key. Numbers are neither here nor there. In a sense, everybody ought to have ...
Nick Hurd | 481 c326WH (Link to this contribution) I am following the hon. Gentleman's speech with great interest. Is it his view that the number of sp...
Kelvin Hopkins | 481 c326WH (Link to this contribution) I defer to the hon. Gentleman's greater knowledge of such matters, but that is what I have read and ...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c325WH (Link to this contribution) I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman could cite any evidence for that. I was in the Treasury at the t...
Kelvin Hopkins | 481 c323-5WH (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Jones. It is an even greater and more long-te...
Gordon Prentice | 481 c318WH (Link to this contribution) Is my friend telling us that the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments is falling down on the ...
Kelvin Hopkins | 481 c318WH (Link to this contribution) I strongly agree with my hon. Friend's comments about Sir Steve Robson. What are his feelings about ...
Paul Flynn | 481 c318WH (Link to this contribution) I shall come to that committee in a moment. We have interviewed the committee, and we know that it r...
Gordon Prentice | 481 c319-23WH (Link to this contribution) It is a delight to follow my friend the Member for Newport, West (Paul Flynn). I would just like to ...
Paul Flynn | 481 c318-9WH (Link to this contribution) Yes, Sir Steve Robson is one of the people who entered the civil service without any great respect f...
Tony Wright | 481 c336WH (Link to this contribution) I am absolutely positive that I have taken the lead in ensuring that our Committee, over the years, ...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c336WH (Link to this contribution) I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman feels that these are niggling disagreements. All I am trying to d...
Tony Wright | 481 c336WH (Link to this contribution) No, the hon. Gentleman is not doing that; he is claiming unique authorship—he does this all the time...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c337WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman seems to be getting very over-excited about a number of relatively minor remarks ...
Lord Watson of Wyre Forest | 481 c347-8WH (Link to this contribution) The two guiding codes that we already have—the ministerial code and the civil service code—have serv...
Lord Watson of Wyre Forest | 481 c344-7WH (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to work under your chairmanship, Mr. Jones. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Membe...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c347WH (Link to this contribution) I have the compact in front of me, and I have read it reasonably carefully. It has a lot of the flav...
Kelvin Hopkins | 481 c340-1WH (Link to this contribution) I agree with much of what the hon. Gentleman is saying. One thing that should worry all of us is the...
Nick Hurd | 481 c341-4WH (Link to this contribution) I am not sure whether I totally agree with the hon. Gentleman, and I certainly do not agree that tha...
Baroness Kramer | 481 c337-9WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the Select Committee and especially its Chairman, the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (...
Nick Hurd | 481 c339-40WH (Link to this contribution) Like the Minister, my alternative entertainment this afternoon was with my children—they too are on ...
Paul Flynn | 481 c315-8WH (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Jones. I am sure that you must be greatly fav...
Gordon Prentice | 481 c311WH (Link to this contribution) Can my friend tell us how Home Office civil servants reacted when the former Home Secretary, my frie...
Tony Wright | 481 c310-1WH (Link to this contribution) Perhaps we have different views on courtesy. I undertake to the hon. Gentleman that I will never cri...
Charles Walker | 481 c314WH (Link to this contribution) It is a delight to follow the Chairman of our Select Committee, who made an outstanding speech. As a...
Tony Wright | 481 c311-3WH (Link to this contribution) I was coming on to that. Civil servants say that it is unfair that they should take responsibility f...
Tony Wright | 481 c309WH (Link to this contribution) I am not alleging. Let me tell the hon. Gentleman that we tested the proposition to destruction, not...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c309WH (Link to this contribution) That is indeed a different issue. If that bevy of Cabinet Secretaries were worried about that discon...
Tony Wright | 481 c308-9WH (Link to this contribution) I do not doubt for a second that there is a wide perception, just as there is a wide perception that...
Speaker | 481 c308WH (Link to this contribution) You managed to get away with it.
Charles Walker | 481 c309-10WH (Link to this contribution) I think he was only there for three months, many years ago, so those people have a very good memory....
Tony Wright | 481 c309WH (Link to this contribution) I can feel myself being drawn into territory into which I do not want to go. I am not sure that I ag...
Charles Walker | 481 c309WH (Link to this contribution) Perception is important. Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern about the continued habit of civil...
Lord Tyrie | 481 c308WH (Link to this contribution) Oh. Well, I have done so now, but I will not do it again.
Speaker | 481 c308WH (Link to this contribution) Order. It is not normal to quote during interventions, Mr. Tyrie.
Lord Tyrie | 481 c308WH (Link to this contribution) Is this really a matter of perception? When a string of former Cabinet Secretaries have lined up to ...
Lord Young of Cookham | 481 c306WH (Link to this contribution) As the hon. Gentleman says, it was a handsome apology—but it was an apology without a reason. Having...
Tony Wright | 481 c306WH (Link to this contribution) Indeed; but I am not in a position to answer that. We have probably identified the issue—
Tony Wright | 481 c306WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend says that we have not quite finished with it.
Gordon Prentice | 481 c306WH (Link to this contribution) The implications of that huge delay can be seen in the reports before us. We started taking evidence...
Tony Wright | 481 c305WH (Link to this contribution) It is a great pleasure to introduce the Public Administration Committee's report, ““Politics and Adm...
Tony Wright | 481 c306WH (Link to this contribution) I fully accept that handsome apology. Let us now put the matter out of the way. Let us not keep reci...
Lord Watson of Wyre Forest | 481 c305WH (Link to this contribution) I want to head off repetitions of that complaint by long-standing members of the Committee. I give m...
Kelvin Hopkins | 481 c308WH (Link to this contribution) I am following with great interest what my hon. Friend is saying. Does he accept that other polities...
Tony Wright | 481 c306-8WH (Link to this contribution) Without the pay, but with associated costs. The reason for such restrictions was to maintain a prop...
Tony Wright | 481 c306WH (Link to this contribution) It is three years. On this occasion, I am not going to say that we have come to the end of the discu...
Tony Wright | 481 c308WH (Link to this contribution) Absolutely: we have to build in checks and balances in other ways. Traditionally, we have been short...
Subjects
Administration Civil servants Government departments Public appointments Politics and government Ministers Political impartiality Select committees
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