Tracing the Evolution of the British Civil Service: Key Developments

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of the historical development of the British Civil Service, tracing its evolution from its early origins to the modern era. It examines key milestones such as the Northcote-Trevelyan Report, which introduced merit-based recruitment and a division of labor, and the Fulton Committee's recommendations for modernizing the service. The essay further explores the impact of Margaret Thatcher's government, including the implementation of managerial reforms and the Next Steps Initiative. By analyzing these significant events, the essay highlights the changing nature of the Civil Service and its adaptation to political and economic shifts. The essay also mentions the impact of British administrative systems on its colonies. The essay concludes by highlighting the significance of these reforms and initiatives in shaping the contemporary structure and function of the British Civil Service.

Brief History of the British Civil Service
The history of the British administrative system is intertwined with the long path of British
constitutional and institutional development. The continuity and change that mark the life of the
Civil Service is pretty dramatic and impacted the administrative systems of its colonies over the
colonial period. The Indian subcontinent experienced a great deal of the ups and downs of the
British administrative system which left number of signatures that the countries still bear in their
administrative practices. Though changes, in the name of reforms, have been brought about the
skull is still the same.
The Civil Service is both a component and a product of the UK constitutional system. It has
evolved as state systems and structures have changed and grown over the years. Organic growth
and gradual change have been the characteristic modes of development, rather than sudden,
consistent change (Burnham and Pyper, 2008). The Offices of State grew in England, and later
the United Kingdom. Initially, they were little more than secretariats for their leaders, who held
positions at court. In the 18th century, in response to the growth of the British Empire and
economic changes, institutions such as the Office of Works and the Navy Board grew large.
Each had its own system and staff were appointed by purchase or patronage. By the 19th century,
it became increasingly clear that these arrangements were not working.
Under Charles Grant, the East India Company established the East India Company College at
Haileybury near London, to train administrators, in 1806. The College was established on
recommendation of officials in China who had seen the imperial examination system (Anon,
2013). In government, a civil service, replacing patronage with examination, similar to the
Chinese system, was advocated a number of times over the next several decades.
Northcote-Trevelyan Report
In 1850, prime minister William Ewart Gladstone advocated for creating a civil service which is
based on expertise rather than favoritism in order to make civil service more efficient and
effective. Consequently, the ‘Northcote-Trevelyan’ recommendation came in place. It
recommended a wide variety of measures to be taken to modernize the existing civil service
which covers; a permanent, politically recluse and neutral, unified civil service with recruitment
made on the basis of merit, and clear division between staff responsible for routine (mechanical)
and those engaged in policy formulation and implementation (administrative) work (Butler,
1993). A Civil Service Commission was set up in 1855 to recruit civil servant and reduce
patronage. The recommendations came in action in 1870 following Gladstone’s order in
parliament. It has been the guiding principle, responsible for all the major changes brought about
in the civil service, for nearly next century. This was attributed to its success in removing
corruption, delivering public services, even under stress of war, and responding effectively to
political change. Patrick Diamond argues:

The Northcote-Trevelyan model was characterized by a hierarchical mode of
Weberian bureaucracy; neutral, permanent and anonymous officials motivated
by the public interest; and a willingness to administer policies ultimately
determined by ministers. This bequeathed a set of theories, institutions and
practices to subsequent generations of administrators in the central state
(Diamond, 2013)
The Fulton Committee and Its Report (1966–1970)
The Fulton Committee and its report (1966–1968) was undoubtedly a major chapter in the
historical development of the British Civil Service. It issued a list of complaints: specifically, it
claimed that there was too much of the “culture of the generalist,” and specialist knowledge was
not spread among senior civil servants where it was more necessary; the grading system was too
rigid and inconvenient to exploit skills of civil servants; and these formed a too-elitist institution
based exclusively on an Oxbridge education. Furthermore, there was too much mobility within
departments and too little career development, and this was partly because the Treasury was not
able satisfactorily to manage both the economy and the Civil Service; there was a lack of
systematic training, a further refection of the British philosophy of administration, and this
feature was linked with an excessive emphasis upon advising ministers, so that senior officials
were giving too little attention to the efficient management of their departments. Finally, there
was a lack of clearly defined responsibility and accountability among individual civil servants
within the hierarchy (Castellani, 2008).
In order to modernize the Civil Service, Fulton made 158 specific recommendations. The bulk of
these were focused on overcoming the generalist culture, with correspondingly greater emphasis
upon the role of the specialists; building a classless service; unifying grading; giving more
equitable opportunities; recruiting graduates from a broader range, and having regard for the
nature and relevance of applicants’ qualifications; curbing excessive mobility between
departments within Whitehall by employing more coherent career planning, with careers
resolving around either the economic/finance or the social service functions, and transfer
between these broad areas being allowed only in exceptional circumstances; creating a CSD
(Civil Service Department), taking away from the Treasury all responsibilities for personnel
management and staffing and setting up a CSC to give a new emphasis to post-entry training at
all levels, partly to direct greater attention to the management of their departments by senior civil
servants whose near monopoly on policy advice to ministers would be tempered by the enhanced
role for specialists; creating within each department policy units or think tanks; developing
“accountable management,” with individual civil servants at various levels in the hierarchy being
given clearly defined responsibilities for areas of work for which they would be held accountable
if not outside Whitehall; and “hiving off” certain functions within each ministry to semi-
independent bodies or agencies. The aim of the Fulton Report was to make the Civil Service
more efficient and more managerially minded. The Wilson government swiftly endorsed the
principles embodied in the report

Heath’s Attempt to Modernize the Central Government (1970–1974)
Edward Heath was the Conservative Prime Minister in the time frame 1970– 1974, and he was a
previous civil servant who was interested by change of the apparatus of government. His
methodology in government was managerial, reasonable and critical thinking. Political enemies
scrutinized him as a "Civil servants' Prime Minister" since his key counselors were civil servants
instead of political cohorts and without a doubt he had a high respect for his past organization,
and he was centered around change to make government more efficient and to accomplish better
policy making (Castellani, 2008). The government’s plan of reform was set out in October 1970
in the White Paper the Reorganization of Central Government. The main reforms were the
creation of two giant departments, the Department for Trade and Industry and the Department of
the Environment (DoE), the introduction of Program Analysis and Review (PAR), the hiving off
of functions and carrying out of some activities from departments, and the establishment of the
think tank, at the service of the Cabinet Office, called Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS).
Thus, the regime approached to build a rational, small and efficiently functional government.
Margaret Thatcher's government
Margaret Thatcher came into office in 1979 believing in free markets as a better social system in
managing government affairs. She was highly motivated by the ‘Public Choice’ theory and
influenced by the bunch of researches done on the public choice in those days. She created an
office called ‘efficiency expert Unit’ which was responsible for identifying the pathologies in the
civil service and make decisions to cure them. Under the recommendation of this office She
immediately set about reducing the size of the civil service, cutting numbers from 732,000 to
594,000 over her first seven years in office. The formerly created CSD (civil service department)
was abolished by transferring power over civil service to the Prime minister’s office and cabinet
division. Michael Heseltine introduced a comprehensive system of corporate and business
planning (known as MINIS) first in the Department of the Environment and then in the Ministry
of Defense. The Financial Management Initiative was launched in 1982 in order to corporate
planning, efficiency and objective setting. MINIS-style business planning became standard, and
delegated budgets were introduced, so that individual managers were held much more
accountable for meeting objectives, and for the first time for the resources they used to do so.
Performance-related pay began in December 1984, was built on thereafter, and continues to this
day, though the sums involved have always been small compared to the private sector, and the
effectiveness of PRP as a genuine motivator has often been questioned. The Next Step Initiative
by Robin Ibbs in 1988 advocated for empowering public managers out of the direct supervision
of ministers and high level civil servant (Greer, 1994). It aimed for empowering public managers
with more responsibility and flexibility in decision making to make public offices more efficient
and result oriented. Citizen charter was first published make the demand side of the public
administration aware of their rights and empower them with knowledge. An Office of Public
Service and Science was set up in 1992, to see that the Charter policy was implemented across
government. Thus, all the focus was on advocating Managerialism by creating more accountable,
smaller, private-like organization which was motivated by the paradigm of NPM.

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