Following his speech at Civil Service Live, Clegg was asked by an audience member about the tensions between ministers and officials. His reply recognised that while civil servants have a “duty to service the democratically elected government of the day”, they must also retain their “long-term perspectives”.
Clegg acknowledged that there is an “in-built tension between the short-term, myopic ambitions of politicians and the long-term perspectives of the civil service. That tension, when well managed and treated in the spirit of mutual respect, with a clear understanding of the division of labour – of impartiality on your part, and random partiality on mine – can actually be a creative tension.”
The DPM’s stance appears to strike a contrast with that of Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, who earlier this month sent a letter to Cabinet ministers arguing that “the civil service aims not to serve the ‘long-term aims of the department’ but the priorities of the government of the day.”
Maude’s letter concerned a set of guidelines on the appointment of permanent secretaries, which argued that departmental chiefs must “balance ministers’ or high-level stakeholders’ immediate needs or priorities with the long-term aims of their department”.
See also: O'Donnell highlights perm secs dual role