Extremely interesting interview with Sir Brian Jarman, Emeritus Professor Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, on the Today programme this morning discussing the culture of cover up and secrecy in the NHS.
"...we were dealing with the Department of Health, not with ministers..." said Sir Brian.
John Humphrys then said that civil servants are answerable to ministers.
This is not currently the case. The Civil Service has a bewildering number of responsibilities and reporting relationships, some defined in law, but generally they are not answerable to ministers (this may change in the near future). Thus we have the absurd situation where ministers have to defend in Parliament situations created by civil servants often without their knowledge or approval.
In the same programme Andy Burnham, former Secretary of State for Health, said that he acted on the advice of his civil servants - all such advice needs to be published so that we can all see what is going on.
Also, I want to know about the meetings of senior civil servants with their "opposite numbers" in EU countries. Can we see the agendas for these meetings, and also have the minutes published. And preferably the meetings should be held in public.
"...we were dealing with the Department of Health, not with ministers..." said Sir Brian.
John Humphrys then said that civil servants are answerable to ministers.
This is not currently the case. The Civil Service has a bewildering number of responsibilities and reporting relationships, some defined in law, but generally they are not answerable to ministers (this may change in the near future). Thus we have the absurd situation where ministers have to defend in Parliament situations created by civil servants often without their knowledge or approval.
In the same programme Andy Burnham, former Secretary of State for Health, said that he acted on the advice of his civil servants - all such advice needs to be published so that we can all see what is going on.
Also, I want to know about the meetings of senior civil servants with their "opposite numbers" in EU countries. Can we see the agendas for these meetings, and also have the minutes published. And preferably the meetings should be held in public.
No comments:
Post a Comment