- Wasn't this title superfluous back when
The ministership was created for Harold Wilson on 1 November 1968 when responsibilities for the pay and management of the Civil Service was transferred from HM Treasury to a new Civil Service Department.
- Why hasn't this superfluous title been forsaken? It's gotta be perplexing to some people! Isn't it way simpler just to refer to the PM, like in the 1985 case below?
Colin Faragher. Public Law Concentrate (1 ed 2019). p 72.
The Prime Minister is Minister for the Civil Service. Section 3 Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 provides that the Minister for the Civil Service has the power to manage the civil service. This includes, among other things, the power to make appointments. The agreement of the Minister for the Civil Service is required in matters concerning the remuneration of civil servants (including compensation payable upon leaving the civil service) or the conditions on which civil servants may retire. In exercising his power to manage the civil service, the Minister for the Civil Service shall have regard to the need to ensure that civil servants who advise ministers are aware of the constitutional significance of Parliament and of the conventions governing the relationship between Parliament and Her Majesty’s Government.
p 142
Lord Diplock, in the House of Lords’ decision in Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service (1985) classified the grounds as illegality, irrationality, and procedural impropriety