Civil Service
The Civil Service is the non-political permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports the government but is not technically a member of the executive. To make things fair, the government get all the resources and people power of the Civil Service and other parties get Short Money.
History[edit | edit source]
The civil service has a long history, but the origins of what we understand to be the modern institution can be dated back to the 1850s and the Northcote-Trevelyan report which recommended that rather than being staffed by useless third sons and drunken best friends, the civil service ought to be opened up to competition and advancement based on merit in the strictly Victorian sense.
Reform[edit | edit source]
Many governments have tried to update the civil service. The most important changes in recent times have been the creation of the Fast Streams (to encourage people other than wonks and nerds to join the civil service) and the splitting of the role of the head of the civil service into two parts (one to be head of nerdery and one to head of "management" and "delivery" and "getting things done"). There is much debate about how these and any other reforms will change the shape of the civil service and if that's really the direction we want to be going in and blah blah blah.
Portrayal[edit | edit source]
In the Media[edit | edit source]
Not a lot of people know or care about the intricacies of the Civil Service unless something has gone wrong. As such, the media generally only reports on it when there's a scandal or reforms happening. Civil servants tend to appear in lots of political documentaries talking shit about politicians.
In Culture[edit | edit source]
The most well known (and, some would argue, most accurate) representation of the Civil Service appears in the television show Yes, Minister and its follow up show, Yes, Prime Minister, a BBC TV series following a government minister dealing with politics, government and the Civil Service. Civil servants are sometimes known as "Sir Humphreys" after the show's leading civil servant of the same name.
Leading members of the civil service are also set to appear in the Channel 4 docudrama Coaltion.
In Fanon[edit | edit source]
Not generally present in fic unless they're getting in the way or helping to facilitate something.
Notable Members[edit | edit source]
- Sir Gus O'Donnell
