Whitehall

Abstract

Not all countries consider their civil service to be part of their constitution, but the United Kingdom typically does. Perhaps it is because the United Kingdom, free from a fixation on the contents of a written constitution, can be more realistic about the scope of ‘constitutional’ law. But it is also because the UK civil service plays a crucial role in the rules of government that a civil service need not play in other countries. On one hand, it is a check on government: the existence of an impartial civil service provides an assured conduit for good advice, while civil servants also have some capacity to stand up to ministers without paying a price. On the other hand, it is an agent of territorial unity, providing layers of interconnections and ‘common ways of working’.