Law would be too clumsy an instrument for regulating the conduct of Ministers of the Crown and the permanent Civil Servants of the State in their relations to each other. This is now far more...

Law would be too clumsy an instrument for regulating the conduct of Ministers of the Crown and the permanent Civil Servants of the State in their relations to each other. This is now far more effectually and far more safely accomplished by the power of public opinion.’ ( Earl Grey, Parliamentary Government Considered with Reference to Reform (London: John Murray, 1864) 326–7)

E valuate whether the lack of legal protections relating to the civil service prior to the enactment of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 allowed practices to develop which have undermined the traditional role of the civil service.