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Things continued to move apace for the troubled Home Office yesterday. John Reid, having shuffled responsibilities amongst his ministerial team, has also, it seems, managed to persuade his senior civil servant, permanent secretary Sir David Normington, to start taking action against the civil servants. One senior servant has been sacked, and another moved, following the revelation that figures regarding foreign prisoners which Mr. Reid gave to MPs were wrong. The Home Office is thus proving an interesting case study for the strained doctrine of ministerial responsibility. Whilst the Home Secretary is accountable to parliament, it is clearly Reid's view, as a man only three weeks into his new job, that his civil servants must start taking the rap for mistakes made by them. Ministerial responsibility is in tatters in any case - Charles Clarke, Reid's predecessor, deciding not to resign over the errors committed under him, and being sacked instead. There is much for debate here, and students are recommended to research the recent events thoroughly, and apply them.
