SCOTLAND must not have its own civil service despite increasing tensions between Holyrood and Westminster, a committee has heard.
The chief executive of the civil service, John Manzoni, said that strengthening the agency north of the border was a priority, and there would be no cause for Scotland to have its own separate version.
Speaking at a Parliamentary committee this morning, Tory MP David Mundell asked whether there would be any grounds to introduce a separate authority in the “devolved administrations…given where they have reached, pursuing diametrically opposed policies to the UK government and often being the harshest critics of the UK government.”
The former Secretary of State for Scotland asked if it was “sustainable to continue with the one service model”.
Manzoni, who is due to leave the service in March as part of Boris Johnson’s Whitehall shake-up, said that he felt it was essential to have one service, which should be strengthened.
He said:” It is important that we do. This government’s position is that the union is an important institution. The civil service…Of course there are tensions, and discussions. There are different human resource policies in Scotland but we work through those.
“I think it continues to be a very important aspect, having one civil service reaching across the whole of the united kingdom.”
The administration boss said it would be a “political decision” but he would encourage further discussion around how policies affect devolved areas, and how they look “through a devolved administration lens”.
He added: “I think [there needs to be] a greater presence in the devolved administrations, we are doing that.
“We have a big office opening in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, greater distribution of civil servants from whitehall into the devolved administrations… I think that is going to very important and its on the agenda.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel