§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will spell out the constitutional implications of the recent statement by the Head of the Home Civil Service and Secretary of the Cabinet, concerning the responsibility of Ministers for decisions taken by their subordinates in the course of carrying out the responsibilities allocated to those Ministers by Acts of Parliament.
§ The Lord Privy Seal (Lord Waddington)The statement had no new constitutional implications. In his lecture to the FDA on the future of the Civil Service on 15th October, the Head of the Civil Service emphasised that, whatever the level of delegation of Civil Service tasks, the line of accountability up the chain through Ministers to Parliament remains unbroken. Ministers can be challenged in Parliament about any action of the Civil Service. This does not mean that Ministers must take all decisions, or take the blame for wrong decisions of their subordinates of which they know nothing or could be expected to know nothing. But they should be responsible, if a wrong is brought to their attention, for taking action to provide redress and to ensure that mistakes do not recur. Framework agreements under the Next Steps initiative help to clarify the borderline between what civil servants are expected to decide for themselves, and what they are expected to refer to Ministers, but Ministers remain accountable for all decisions.