Select Committees and Civil Servants
Civil servants appear in front of Select Committees on behalf of their Ministers and under their directions because it is the Minister, not the civil servant, who is accountable to Parliament for the evidence given to the Committee.
Since 1980 the approach of successive governments to the relationship between civil servants and select committees has been framed by the Osmotherly Rules, named after the civil servant who wrote them.
Alice Lilly, senior researcher at the Institute for Government, says the key principle behind the rules is that “ministers are directly accountable to parliament, and governments over time have taken that to mean that civil servants, when they appear before committees, do so under the direction and instruction of their ministers. Governments have always been concerned not to undermine that principle of ministerial accountability.
November 2011 Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge forces HMRC lawyer Anthony Inglese to swear an oath on the Bible to tell the truth while he is being questioned on corporate tax deals.
November 2011 former head of UK Border Force Brodie Clark tells the Home Affairs Committee “I never went rogue”, a week after resigning in a row over risk-based passport checks. He had quit on the grounds that comments by home secretary Theresa May amounted to constructive dismissal.
December 2011 When asked how the security resources needed for the 2012 Olympics had originally been estimated, home office permanent secretary Helen Ghosh describes it to the Public Accounts Committee as a “finger in the air” exercise.
April 2016 Keith Vaz, chair of the Home Affairs Committee, terminates questions to Home Office second permanent secretary Olly Robbins after 20 minutes, accusing him of “unsatisfactory evidence” over the Border Force budget.
December 2017 The Commons Liaison Committee unanimously accuses national security adviser Mark Sedwill of obstructing the Defence Committee by refusing to appear.
April 2018 Home secretary Amber Rudd wrongly asserts to the Home Affairs Committee that her department does not have targets for immigration removals, precipitating her resignation. A subsequent inquiry into the advice she received from civil servants finds incompetence but no wilful misconduct.
A civil servant’s select committee performance has a big influence on their reputation and career prospects. Former cabinet secretary Lord Gus O’Donnell says: “It is an important test as you become more senior. When politicians are trying to get a particular angle or get you to say a specific quote, it does require a degree of training and understanding of how to perform publicly, and that’s part of the skill set of the modern civil servant.”
Former head of the civil service Lord Bob Kerslake says judgments can be unforgiving: “Appearances are definitely watched and assessed by ministers and special advisers: you can do 90 minutes perfect and one small thing that is perceived to be wrong, and that’s what’s remembered.”
Dame Helen Ghosh had just such an experience as Home Office perm sec when she appeared before the Public Accounts Committee. Discussing security plans for the London Olympics due to take place the following summer, she described the original and subsequently discredited estimate for the number of security guards needed as a “finger in the air” exercise. This did nothing to improve her relationship with then home secretary Theresa May.