No, minister! Senior civil servants deliberately block policy, says Francis Maude
Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph reports that Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, will condemn the “unacceptable” behaviour of some mandarins in charge of Whitehall departments, who are refusing to carry out the orders of their ministers.
She quotes him as saying: “There are cases when permanent secretaries have blocked agreed Government policy from going ahead or advised other officials not to implement ministerial decisions – that is unacceptable”.
This may explain why Mike Penning failed completely to get our motorways cleaned up in his two and a half years as minister in charge of the Highways Agency.
