Civil Service College (Hansard, 13 May 1991)

§ 36. Mr. Tony Banks
To ask the Minister for the Civil Service what courses on the machinery of government are run by the Civil Service college.

§ Mr. Renton
The college runs over 40 courses a year on machinery of government issues. They benefit greatly from the contribution of Members of the House—including the hon. Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Banks), for which I am most grateful.

§ Mr. Banks
It is my pleasure.
Will copies of Sir Bernard Ingham's new book "Kill The Messenger" be made available at the Civil Service college as a teaching aid for civil servants, to show them how to stitch up elected Ministers at the request of the Prime Minister? Perhaps the Minister will tell us that the best thing to do is to cut through it all and appoint card-carrying members of the Conservative party to the chief posts in the civil service?

§ Mr. Renton
That latter remark was wholly unworthy of the hon. Gentleman. As he has spent time—for which I thanked him—lecturing at the Civil Service college on the value of Question Time, I hoped that he would make better use of his opportunity today. It will not be necessary for us to make available at the Civil Service college copies of Sir Bernard Ingham's memoirs; my impression from reading yesterday's Sunday Times is that it will be freely available on the bookstalls.