CONTENTS
Terms of Reference
Summary
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Ministerial responsibility for the civil service
Accountability and responsibility
Chapter 3: Accountability of civil servants to ministers
Appointments of permanent secretaries
The Government's proposals
Objections to the proposed reform
The principles that should underlie reform
Temporary appointments of senior civil servants
Discipline, dismissal and appraisal of civil servants
Project management and long-term policy implementation
The civil service as a constitutional check
Box 2: Roles and responsibilities of Accounting Officers
Suggested reform
Ministerial responsibility for special advisers
Chapter 4: Accountability of civil servants to Parliament
Which civil servants should give evidence to select committees?
Evidence from former office holders
What should select committees ask civil servants?
What should select committees say about civil servants?
Chapter 5: Arm's-length bodies
Overview of arm's-length bodies
Box 3: Types of arm's-length bodies
Distancing ministers from decisions
The policy-implementation divide
Chapter 6: Summary of recommendations
Appendix 1: Select Committee on the Constitution
Appendix 2: List of witnesses
Appendix 3: Call for evidence
Evidence is published online at www.parliament.uk/hlconstitution
and available for inspection at the Parliamentary Archives (0207
219 5314)
References in the footnotes to the report are as
follows:
Q refers to a question in oral evidence;
witness names without a question reference refer
to written evidence.
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