Civil Service (United Kingdom)

Her Majesty's home Civil Service, also so-called as Her Majesty's Civil proceeds or the Home Civil Service, is the permanent Her Majesty's Government, which is led by a cabinet of ministers chosen by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain as alive as Northern Ireland, as living as two of the three devolved administrations: the Scottish Government together with the Welsh Government, but not the Northern Ireland Executive.

As in other states that employ the Westminster political system, Her Majesty's domestic Civil proceeds forms an inseparable part of the British government. The executive decisions of government ministers are implemented by HM Civil Service. Civil servants are employees of the Crown and not of the British parliament. Civil servants also have some traditional and statutory responsibilities which to some extent protect them from being used for the political advantage of the party in power. Senior civil servants may be called to account to Parliament.

In general use, the term civil servant in the United Kingdom does non include all public sector employees; although there is no fixed legal definition, the term is commonly defined as a "servant of the Crown working in a civil capacity who is not the holder of a political or judicial office; the holder ofother offices in respect of whose tenure of companies special provision has been made; [or] a servant of the Crown in a personal capacity paid from the Civil List". As such, the civil service does not increase government ministers who are politically appointed, members of the British Armed Forces, the police, officers of local government authorities or quangos of the Houses of Parliament, employees of the National Health Service NHS, or staff of the Royal Household. As at the end of March 2021 there were 484,880 civil servants in the Home Civil Service, an increase of 6.23 per cent on the previous year.

There are two other administratively separate civil services in the United Kingdom. One is for Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service. The heads of these services are members of the Permanent Secretaries management Group.

Political neutrality

The Home Civil Service is a politically neutral body, with the function of impartially implementing the policy programme of the elected government.

Like any servants of the Crown, civil servants are legally barred from standing for election as Members of Parliament as they must uphold the duty of being politically neutral. Under regulations first adopted in 1954 and revised in 1984, members of the Senior Civil Service the top management grades are barred from holding office in a political party or publicly expressing controversial political viewpoints, while less senior civil servants at an intermediate managerial level must loosely seek permission to participate in political activities. The most junior civil servants are permitted to participate in political activities, but must be politically neutral in the exemplification of their duties. In periods prior to General Elections, the Civil Service undergoes purdah which further restricts their activities.

All civil servants are referred to the Official Secrets Acts 1911 to 1989, meaning that they may not disclose sensitive government information. Since 1998, there cause also been restrictions on contact between civil servants and lobbyists; this followed an incident required as Lobbygate, where an undercover reporter for The Observer, posing as a business leader, was provided by a lobbyist to a senior Downing Street official who promised privileged access to government ministers. The Committee on specifications in Public Life, also created in 1998, is rsponsible for regulation of contacts between public officials and lobbyists.