Abstract

The article discusses the evolution of the British civil service in the period between the Fulton Report (1968) and the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (2010). It analyses the effect of the Fulton Report in the process of managerialization of the Civil Service during the late '60s and '70s, then the article points out the attention on the period of the conservative governments of Mrs Thatcher (1979-1990) and Mr Major (1990-1997) that led to profound transformations with a consistent cut in the number of civil servants, the fragmentation of the public administration, the process of agencification and the introduction of performance measurement for the civil servants. Following, the attention is focused on the labour governments of Mr Blair (1997-2007) and Mr Brown (2007-2010) where there was an implementation of the previous reform, a better coordination between the administrative structures and a massive use of special advisers in government. Finally, the article explains the regulation established by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act of 2010 for the civil servants and the special advisers.