Should a new government be able to replace senior civil servants with its own appointees?
Senior civil servants in the UK must be appointed on merit through fair and open competition under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. Only special advisers, who are temporary and politically appointed, are exempt, and their posts end with the government that appointed them. Ministers cannot formally dismiss permanent secretaries, but several have been forced out, including Tom Scholar in 2022. Reform UK was reported in March 2026 to plan replacing the top civil servants in every department with people more likely to deliver its priorities.
49 Opinions
I thought we pay senior civil servants more as they are best at that job. ! If not demote and move. We need best. !
The system would grind to a halt.
No its important our civil servants, whilst serving the needs of the Government remain independent and unafraid of losing there position when a change happens within the same party running the country. They should be able to tell the Government the truth as they see it with facts to back it up, and allow the Government to decide on policy after that.
The civil service is much more apolitical than many think, and embodies great experience and competence (as well as, inevitably, occasionally the opposite). An politically neutral, experienced civil service is a huge asset in turning policy ideas into practice. It is regrettable that the reality check has sometimes been depicted as partisanship.
Not because I don’t want change but I do not want change that would make things even worse. So fire them all rehire on a strict ‘ best suited to support the. Uk’ . Basis we the public should scrutinise their CVs
Jim Hacker was right when saying the civil service were the real opposition It's a difficult one, but on balance I believe no, but with caveats. Retaining senior civil servants brings experience and knowledge which are vital, but often overlooked qualities. However, there needs to be a better mechanism for holding them to account when they are obstructing the implementation of government policy.
Yes. Part of the problem Britain has is we elect people who then get opposed by the machinery of state. Ultimately the minister should have the authority. So we can sack them at elections if they do a bad job.
Everyone knows the blob is left wing. Civil servants need to be committed to applying everything asked of them; having people who believe in that will prevent the blob from making this awkward for any right of centre government.
Yes because it could be like the TV show West Wing! Our civil service seems ..okay...at keeping things ticking over while PMs come and go, but has gone slightly loopy on Climatranistine and seems to prefer cut and paste from the EU to original thinking.
Reluctant no, based on the fact that it feels like calling the civil service "politically impartial" is a bit of a stretch...