The Institute for Government has welcomed clarification provided by the minister for the Cabinet Office on the rules for civil servants on speaking in public.
The think tank has been campaigning against internal government guidance banning senior officials from speaking at certain events, warning it will lead to worse policy and decision making. Former officials and other influential commentators on the civil service, including CSW's editors-in-chief Suzannah Brecknell and Jess Bowie, have also raised concerns about the approach.
The IfG said the government has now made “a number of important clarifications that will, if sensibly implemented, mitigate some of the worst aspects of the gagging rules”.
In July, IfG director Hannah White wrote to Sir Chris Wormald, the cabinet secretary, and Georgia Gould, then a minister at the Cabinet Office, to raise concerns about "the chilling effect" that new government guidance on civil servants speaking in public was having on external engagement by civil servants, and the damage it risks doing to the effectiveness of government.
In the letter, she noted that the think tank was “pleased to see in correspondence from Sir Chris that the Cabinet Office has 'clarified certain elements of the guidance to make clear that government officials can continue to speak to, and take questions from, sector-facing audiences'”. She also welcomed Wormald’s “confirmation that operationally independent officials and scientific and medical experts can continue public and media engagements”.
Replying to White's letter sent last week and published yesterday, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister for the Cabinet Office, set out the government's position and confirmed that the guidance to departments on how to interpret the Civil Service Management Code had been clarified.
He said the latest guidance “makes clear that civil servants are able to take part in stakeholder engagement and sector engagement activity” and that “where media outlets are likely to be present at public events, further approvals may be needed, subject to the judgement of departments on the nature of the activity”.
Thomas-Symonds also said it is “important for civil servants to speak in public about matters for which they have responsibility” but that “ministers should be the primary voice for the government”.
He also said that “it is essential for civil servants to be actively engaging widely across civil society”.
White and Alex Thomas, who is the IfG’s programme director for the civil service, have welcomed the response, calling it “an encouraging return to common sense” in a blog post.
They said Thomas-Symonds is “rightly sending a message that it’s time to calm down, to welcome the essential engagement of civil servants across society, and to focus on collectively making and implementing the best policies for the country, rather than micromanaging public appearances by civil servants in an unnecessary game of whack-a-mole”.
However, they said the government “still needs to be less defensive”.
“There are worrying signs that in parts of government the defensiveness that prompted the gagging rules persists,” White and Thomas said. “The Ministry of Defence insisted on some odd restrictions during a recent Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) conference, leaving military officers and civil servants doing an unedifying hokey-cokey about who was speaking on or off the record, and when questions could be taken.
“These are senior, experienced people, who know how to answer a question without embarrassment or sharing state secrets. Micromanaging who says what and when makes the government look silly, but more importantly inhibits valuable civic debate.”
They also pondered whether the Civil Service Management Code needs revisiting, suggesting it “encourages an inward-looking civil service of the kind that politicians themselves often find frustrating”.