Departmental Morale (Hansard, 29 October 1975)

§ Mrs. Castle

Yes. A report appeared in theDaily Mail on 27th October headed "Barbara's Top Men Revolt". On the day that the report appeared Sir Philip Rogers, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Security issued the following statement: There is not a word of truth in the assertions made prominently in today's Daily Mail that my Department are in revolt against Mrs. Castle, the Secretary of State. The newspaper begins by saying that Mrs. Castle faces 'unprecedented criticism among her own senior Civil Servants' and that they are openly critical of the excessive time they have to spend executing political decisions instead of dealing with the practical problems afflicting the Health Service. There is no truth in the allegations that Mrs. Castle's senior advisers are disloyal to her. The task of the Civil Service is to carry out the policies of the Government in office. We serve Mrs. Castle with the same loyalty that we have always given to Ministers, and which all Civil Servants give to their Ministers. It is also untrue that I have specially warned Civil Servants not to talk to the Press about this. Such a warning would have been quite unnecessary. The only explanation seems to be the distortion of a routine notice which I issued pointing out that Civil Servants who are approached by the media should notify Information Division. This is common practice throughout the Service, and is designed to facilitate the flow of information. It is a matter which reflects seriously upon the journalistic standards of the Daily Mail that, having been made fully aware of the whole text of this statement, it chose to carry part only of it, omitting that part which directly contradicted its story, namely, that there is not a word of truth in the assertions made prominently in today's Daily Mail that my Department are in revolt against Mrs. Castle, Secretary of State".