Ministers, departments and civil servants

Norton, Philip

Abstract

Departments form the building blocks of British government. The capacity for ministers to determine policy has been increasingly constrained by external pressures, but ministers remain significant players in policy-making. The number of civil servants in a department will sometimes run into many thousands. Departments have press officers, but ministers may also use their special advisers to brief journalists. Press officers are civil servants. Special advisers, as we have seen, are political appointees. Junior ministers are appointed by the Prime Minister, although sometimes after consulting the minister heading the department. Traditionally, one route to reaching junior ministerial office has been through serving as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS). A PPS is appointed to assist a minister. Like junior ministers and PPSs, the number of special advisers has grown in recent years. The Permanent Secretary is answerable to the minister for what goes on in the department.

Citation

Norton, P. (2021). Ministers, departments and civil servants. In B. Jones, P. Norton, & I. Hertner (Eds.), Politics UK (504-526). (10th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003028574

• Online Publication Date: Jul 29, 2021
• Publication Date: Jul 29, 2021
• Deposit Date: Apr 1, 2022
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 504-526
• Edition: 10th ed.
• Book Title: Politics UK
• Chapter Number: 21
• ISBN: 9780367464059 ; 9780367464028
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003028574
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3884676