When trust is lost: Making sense of the damaged relationship between ministers and civil servants

Ministers have lost trust in the civil service: that is damaging. It makes both officials’ and ministers’ work harder, and makes the state less able to work for the people it serves. It is not new for tensions to rise, but the strength of the relationship has usually waxed and waned, where today efforts to rebuild, or ‘reset’, it appear to be failing. There is plenty of frustration, but seemingly little resolution. 

We believe this is because the people involved are talking at cross-purposes, using outdated and now unhelpful shorthands to try to describe what they are experiencing. A more accurate shared language is needed to properly diagnose the problem, and is a prerequisite to rebuilding ministerial trust in the civil service. 

This discussion paper sets out what we think that language should be. It draws on our conversations with ministers, spads and civil servants to identify five traits of civil service behaviour and skills that are necessary for ministerial trust to be built and sustained today. 

We want to know what you think of our analysis, and want your help with what we do next. We will be developing our work, embarking on next steps, and sharing our findings in this area over the coming months. To share your reflections please get in touch via the email below.

Hannah Keenan
Associate Director, Institute for Government
[email protected]