Can ministers fire permanent secretaries?
Ministers have traditionally not directly fired permanent secretaries. The UK system of appointment by merit is intended to protect civil servants from losing their jobs for political reasons.
Some ministers have felt the system unduly protects civil servants from being held accountable for poor performance. Occasionally ministers fall out with their permanent secretaries or feel that a change at the top is needed. The informal practice is for the cabinet secretary and the prime minister to attempt to mediate and see if a solution can be found. There have been plenty of cases where a permanent secretary has been moved to another job, has retired with a payoff or been given a peerage or pay-out.
Recent departures have shown the willingness of the Johnson government to force permanent secretaries out of the job prematurely, without being formally fired.
Some departures have been very controversial. In March 2020 the permanent secretary at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam, resigned and launched a claim for constructive dismissal against the Home Office. The cabinet secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, announced his departure in June 2020 amidst heavy negative briefing in the papers against him and after reports that he was being forced out. In August 2020 the permanent secretary of the Department for Education, Jonathan Slater, left the civil service after the prime minister ‘concluded that there is a need for fresh official leadership at the Department for Education’1 . Like Sedwill, Slater stepped down, so was not formally fired, but the decision appears to have been taken by the prime minister.
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