Discuss the view that the Civil Service has too much influence over policy

The courtly service is the administrative branch of the UK goernment, set with dealing with the casual running of the country, kinda than a ministerial constituent, which focus on only nigh atomic number 18as. It is they that carry off the to a greater extent sublunary roles, although some civic Servants do stick out more exciting life styles with jobs much(prenominal) as testing weaponry that is to be bought by the Ministry of Defence.The well-mannered process is to boundaryinate ministers on the decisions that need to be do, to drawing ministers on the issues involved and to present options to get a huge the ministers decision making easier. At no stage though should well-be considerd Servants be prudent for decision making. There is a clear dividing line between the decision-making role of the minister and the supporting role of the complaisant Servant. as Marg art Thatcher put it Civil Servants send word ministers decide.Servants are non elected and becau se of this they should not have the power to make decisions. concludingity making is the function of the politicians and it is they who should take responsibility for the success or failures of departmental insurance polity and they should not be held accountcapable for their advice or for departmental policy. In the case of policy errors or mistakes in implementation it is the minister who has to settle, not the Civil Servant the Civil Servant should not be held responsible because they have no role in decision making.This discount be seen done the waiveation In April 2004 of Beverly Hughes. She forced to resign as minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Counter act of terrorism when it was shown that she had been informed of procedural improprieties concerning the granting of visas to certain categories of workers from east Europe. While this fecesnot wholly be seen as their fault, it was they, not the courtly servants that advised them that had to resign oer the e vents, due to the concomitant that they are responsible for the final decision.subgenus Pastors have a large workload and have expressage time as is shown by the fact that the Core hours in the House of jet are until 10pm on some evenings, and parliamentary debates sometimes continue into the night, with Ministers having added Committees to sit on and other governance business to come after to, as a result, they in place firmly on their Civil Service advice and this puts the Civil Servants into a privileged and influential localisation. either advisor should have some influence, if they dont at that place is not much point in them being there.However, if ministers lack the time to scoff Civil Servants advice, the danger is that they will convey a mouthpiece for Civil Service policies. Civil Servants also have the luck to control the minister by restricting the ply of nurture to him or by presenting it in such a way as to limit his options, as was shown by the hold inf ormation given to Beverly Hughes. It would be call on _or_ oppress to offer that this happens ofttimes, it remains true that the Civil Service has considerable power. This is deemed as the Minister having gone(a) native and in October 2010, claims were made that Jeremy Hunt had gone native.Also, when Alan Johnson took position of the Home Secretary, he had relatively slender experience in the policy of governance the UK and was therefore more reliant on the Civil Service than he may have chosen to be. Manipulation of information may occur. Ministers, such as Alan Johnson, rely on officials to supply them with background facts upon which to outdoor stage decisions. Skilful officials may be able to present statistics and research findings in a way as to influence final conclusions There is evidence to suggest that the cultivated service has been politicised due to the increase of special(a) advisers with too much power.It can be argued that Special Advisers can work efficac iously with civil servants, and it is a relationship of joint benefit, not a matter of regret. The role of the UK Civil Service is to help the governing of the day develop and carry out their policies and administer the public services for which they are responsible. Ministers have to be able to trust civil servants to be discreet other politicians may feel the need to suffocate themselves with political appointees whose main virtue is their faithfulness to that politician rather than having ability to pronounce good policy and then have it implemented.A special advisor can give more biased opinions and can be there to help the Minister, rather than the department, policy or organization. Spin doctors such as Alistair Campbell had great influence over policy on the basis of how it would come along to the public, and this can be seen in particular(a) over the time Blair spent lecture to him, rather than to the Civil Service over plans for the Millennium. There is also evide nce to suggest that individual departments to develop long term policies of their own.When a new minister of government comes to power, the department will seek to impose its own culture upon them. The Treasury is most often suspected of such tactics, as it is notoriously opposed to increased public consumption or any radical using up plans, caused by the fact that it has to keep the long term in mind, and the fact that a likely change in government will see most of the polices undo anyway, causing undue harm on the economy.If the senior Treasury officials can sway each new Chancellor of the treasury of the virtues of keeping spending low, their influence mechanically grows. An example of this was in 1999, when Chancellor Gordon embrown was resisting calls for extensive increases in spending on health and education, some critics suggested he had gone native, suggesting that Brown had been influenced by the Civil Servants, adopting their average of behaviour and so losing his en thusiasm for spending.Overall, the Civil Service do have more power over policy than their speculate political neutrality should let them, plainly it is to be expected in the new(a) terra firma of political advisors, and the competitive world which seeks public recognition. While the senior civil servants, due to the permanence and long destiny nature do have a great deal of power, the average civil servant has less power, and is more reliant upon presentation of the facts in a flourishing way then anything else, something which is true with Ministers and political relation as a whole.