UK Parliament / Open data

Civil Service

Opposition day on Wednesday, 7 May 2008, in the House of Commons, led by Lord Maude of Horsham. The answering member was Ed Miliband.
Civil Service. Eleventh opposition day debate (part 1). Motion negatived on division (302 to 230). Amendment agreed on division (301 to 225).
Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
475 c722-78 
Session
2007-08
Department
Cabinet Office
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Kelvin Hopkins | 475 c736 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady mentioned ethics. I would not call myself a Platonist, but I refer to Plato from time ...
Chris Bryant | 475 c734 (Link to this contribution) One of the reasons why there is great value in bringing private and voluntary sector people into the...

Show all contributions (82)
Ed Miliband | 475 c733-4 (Link to this contribution) I am told that I do not agree with him—I am sorry. If we are to have people in government who are m...
Baroness Kramer | 475 c735-6 (Link to this contribution) I have to admit to a surreal moment: when the right hon. Member for Horsham (Mr. Maude) was speaking...
Ed Miliband | 475 c734-5 (Link to this contribution) I could never possibly suggest that, but I take my hon. Friend's point. Innovation and an ability to...
Kelvin Hopkins | 475 c733 (Link to this contribution) The French situation, in which civil servants who see themselves as part of the state go into busine...
Ed Miliband | 475 c733 (Link to this contribution) I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman, who makes an important point. That should apply not only...
Ed Miliband | 475 c733 (Link to this contribution) I am trying to work out whether I agree with my hon. Friend.
Robert Syms | 475 c733 (Link to this contribution) I have always been amazed by the French system, where sometimes quite senior fast-track civil servan...
Kelvin Hopkins | 475 c732 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend—other Ministers do the same—referred to the past as if it is wrong because it i...
Ed Miliband | 475 c732-3 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend to a certain extent. Let me try to illustrate what I mean by the golden...
Ed Miliband | 475 c732 (Link to this contribution) I give way to another distinguished member of the Public Administration Committee.
Ed Miliband | 475 c732 (Link to this contribution) I think that we do understand how it works. I am not sure what putting it on a statutory footing wou...
Ian Liddell-Grainger | 475 c731 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry for that flippancy, Madam Deputy Speaker. Does the Minister agree that the time has come...
Speaker | 475 c731 (Link to this contribution) Order. Could we have debate conducted in the usual manner?
Ian Liddell-Grainger | 475 c731 (Link to this contribution) He might be Ian Liddell-Grainger in his spare time, Madam Deputy Speaker. [Interruption.]
Ed Miliband | 475 c731 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps a constructive suggestion is coming.
Ed Miliband | 475 c730 (Link to this contribution) There is not only one; by my count, 20 Conservative Members are former special advisers.
Ed Miliband | 475 c730 (Link to this contribution) Yes, and that is why we repealed it. The first act of the new Prime Minister was to repeal that Orde...
Lord Tyrie | 475 c730 (Link to this contribution) First, there was full transparency in the role of advisers, and secondly, the decision by the Labour...
Ed Miliband | 475 c730-1 (Link to this contribution) It cannot be the case both that this information was always provided and that it arose only after se...
Ed Miliband | 475 c730 (Link to this contribution) Indeed, there are more former special advisers who are Conservative MPs than there are women Conserv...
Ed Miliband | 475 c731 (Link to this contribution) The current norm is that most Cabinet Ministers, including myself, have two special advisers. I do n...
Julian Lewis | 475 c731 (Link to this contribution) Given that large numbers of civil servants are supposed to be told what to do by very small numbers ...
Ed Miliband | 475 c727-8 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, To leave out from ““House”” to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:"“...
Ed Miliband | 475 c728 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman says that we are not legislating, but pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill ...
Ed Miliband | 475 c728 (Link to this contribution) It has been 155 years since the Northcote-Trevelyan report; and the right hon. Gentleman was part of...
Ian Liddell-Grainger | 475 c729 (Link to this contribution) I am a member of the Public Administration Committee under the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wr...
Chris Bryant | 475 c729 (Link to this contribution) The Minister will know that Short money, which has increased dramatically since Labour came to power...
Ed Miliband | 475 c729 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I am sorry that I missed him when I was discussing ...
Lord Tyrie | 475 c730 (Link to this contribution) In retrospect, does the Minister think it was a mistake for the incoming Labour Government to give s...
Ed Miliband | 475 c729-30 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has made an important point. In an act of generosity, the Government have significant...
Lord Maude of Horsham | 475 c725-6 (Link to this contribution) Those units are meant to be accountable to the Prime Minister, but the Chancellor of the Duchy of La...
Speaker | 475 c726 (Link to this contribution) Order. I think the right hon. Gentleman has made his point. May I remind him again of the substance ...
Lord Maude of Horsham | 475 c725 (Link to this contribution) I am happy to do so, Madam Deputy Speaker. My argument is that this is a Government whose obsession ...
Ian Liddell-Grainger | 475 c725 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend is remiss in not bringing to the fore all the delivery units in No. 10, all the...
Speaker | 475 c725 (Link to this contribution) Order. Will the right hon. Gentleman relate his comments to the words of the motion tabled by the Le...
Lord Maude of Horsham | 475 c727 (Link to this contribution) It would be useful to have a little more scrutiny. As my hon. Friend the Member for New Forest, East...
Lord Maude of Horsham | 475 c726-7 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right. It makes one smile when one hears the Prime Minister criticising us for sli...
Julian Lewis | 475 c726 (Link to this contribution) Is it not a sign of the time and of the truth of the case that my right hon. Friend is making that t...
Lord Maude of Horsham | 475 c726 (Link to this contribution) Madam Deputy Speaker, I am simply attempting to illustrate the problems that have arisen and the com...
Lord Maude of Horsham | 475 c724-5 (Link to this contribution) I will tell the hon. Gentleman exactly what it has to do with the debate. It is about allowing the G...
Chris Bryant | 475 c724 (Link to this contribution) What does that have to do with the debate?
Lord Maude of Horsham | 475 c722-4 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, "That this House notes with concern the Government's management of the Civil Service;...
Speaker | 475 c722 (Link to this contribution) I now come to the main business, an Opposition day debate on the Government's management of the civi...
Kelvin Hopkins | 475 c741 (Link to this contribution) I want to follow up on the two interventions made by the hon. Member for New Forest, East (Dr. Lewis...
Tony Wright | 475 c741 (Link to this contribution) I tried to put the matter as fairly as I could, rather than in a partisan way. I was trying to expla...
Julian Lewis | 475 c741 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is being generous in giving way again. With respect, even that quotation does not...
Tony Wright | 475 c740 (Link to this contribution) To support what I am saying, let me simply quote one history of the civil service, which says:"““The...
Julian Lewis | 475 c740 (Link to this contribution) I am not expert in this field, but I am a little surprised that the hon. Gentleman seems to be sugge...
Tony Wright | 475 c739-40 (Link to this contribution) When I saw the motion, I thought how extraordinary it was. I have seen some motions here over the ye...
Baroness Kramer | 475 c736-9 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, but I do not subscribe to the notion that one is a ...
Kelvin Hopkins | 475 c746 (Link to this contribution) I thank the right hon. Gentleman, my political neighbour, for giving way. He is describing a situati...
Lord Lilley | 475 c744-6 (Link to this contribution) It is a great privilege to follow the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wright) in addressing these...
Tony Wright | 475 c741-4 (Link to this contribution) That is an interesting observation. I was trying to argue that although such charges are made for po...
Charles Walker | 475 c757-8 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased to be called to speak in this interesting and wide-ranging debate. I have an admission ...
Robert Syms | 475 c754-7 (Link to this contribution) I enjoyed the contribution from the hon. Member for Luton, North (Kelvin Hopkins) as we went back to...
Charles Walker | 475 c758 (Link to this contribution) The question is whether they do a useful job there. I will leave my colleague to answer that questio...
Julian Lewis | 475 c746-7 (Link to this contribution) One point has not been brought out clearly enough. When the changeover came from special advisers wh...
Lord Lilley | 475 c746 (Link to this contribution) I entirely agree. I want to ask why the new Labour Government have put so much pressure on these fe...
Kelvin Hopkins | 475 c750-4 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the opportunity to speak in this important debate on a subject that has interested me grea...
Lord Lilley | 475 c747-50 (Link to this contribution) I agree very strongly with that. I would like to draw on my own experience—the best way for me to co...
Charles Walker | 475 c759 (Link to this contribution) There should of course be a range of views within our civil service. The hon. Gentleman brings me on...
Kelvin Hopkins | 475 c758 (Link to this contribution) I agree with what the hon. Gentleman says about the powers and qualities that our civil servants sho...
Phil Hope | 475 c769-70 (Link to this contribution) I was just coming to the hon. Gentleman, who revealed his ambition to be a special adviser. [Interru...
Richard Bacon | 475 c759 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend may be interested to know that the permanent secretary to the Treasury, Nick Macphers...
Greg Clark | 475 c763-5 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman shakes his head, but he should be careful; he himself has experience of wit...
Robert Key | 475 c766 (Link to this contribution) I listened with great interest to the speech of my hon. Friend the Member for New Forest, East (Dr. ...
Greg Clark | 475 c766-7 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right to pay tribute to the wider spread of civil servants. They include people wh...
Phil Hope | 475 c767-9 (Link to this contribution) I have listened with great interest to the important points made during this afternoon's debate. Unf...
Charles Walker | 475 c759 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. The Secretary of State for Justice chose his words carefully when he said that the best ...
Julian Lewis | 475 c760-2 (Link to this contribution) Because I was elected on 1 May 1997, which could be described as the mirror image for the Conservati...
Greg Clark | 475 c762-3 (Link to this contribution) This has been a debate of light and shade. The hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wright) captured s...
Robert Syms | 475 c727 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend set out some of the people working in Downing street. No doubt some have approp...
Kelvin Hopkins | 475 c758 (Link to this contribution) As the hon. Gentleman may be aware, a number of former special advisers are parachuted on to our Fro...
Notes
Eleventh Opposition Day debate (part 2) took place on 29 October 2008.
Subjects
Accountability
Civil servants
Civil service
Public appointments
Parliamentary scrutiny
Special advisers
Link
View this Parliamentary proceeding on www.publications.parliament.uk
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