Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I listened with interest to the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) talking about why his new clause was not selected. I put it to him, however, that it might have had the advantage of topicality, but it had the disadvantage of not being relevant to the civil service—it was not about civil servants. The Government made it clear in their response to the Joint Committee that the provisions in the Bill do not alter the current power to manage individual civil servants. That will, as now, continue to be delegated to the head of the civil service and to permanent heads of Departments.