Confusing roles

Kit Fraser (letters, 30 May) seems to be confused by the role of civil servants.

The chief medical officer and chief scientific officer are politically neutral career civil servants whose job it is to advise government ministers. It is not their job to make political judgments or take political decisions. That is for government ministers, who are accountable to the electorate for the decisions they take.

Government ministers stand or fall by their decisions but the CSO and CMO continue in their role whatever the colour of the government of the day. To quote the old adage – “civil servants advise, ministers decide”.

The Prime Minister was quite right not to allow civil servants to be drawn into the political debate and they would be put in an untenable position if they were to do so.

Dominic Cummings, however,

is a not a career civil servant. He is a special adviser (“Spad” in government parlance) appointed on a shortterm contract by ministers specifically to take account of the political dimension of decisions (which career civil servants are not allowed to do). Spads can be fired by ministers, civil servants can not. To my mind, Cummings appeared to face a difficult

domestic situation and took the decision to return to his family network in Durham during lockdown.

That, in my view, was the wrong decision and sent the wrong message and he should have acknowledged that in his press conference.

However, the Prime Minister has obviously reached the view that Cummings is more valuable within his team than

outside. But it is wrong to draw an equivalence between a politically-appointed “Spad” and long-term career civil servants.

PETER LEWIS Albert Terrace, Edinburgh