Changing Civil Service

When this was originally published in 1985, this was the first dispassionate, scholarly study of the British Civil Service as it had developed since the Fulton Report of 1986. The author discusses such controversial topics as the politicization of the Higher Civil Service, training and recruitment policies, the rise and fall of the Civil Service Department, Civil Service pay, the emergence of aggressive trade unionism and the strike of 1981. His analysis then provides the background to a critical evaluation of the Thatcher Government’s attempts to cut down the size and influence of the Civil Service. The book remains a major contribution to and one of the finest pieces of research on the UK postwar civil service.

Emeritus Professor Geoffrey K. Fry who died in 2023 spent his career at the University of Leeds in the field of British Government and Administration having studied for his doctorate at the LSE. A prolific author of nine books and over forty papers, he is perhaps best known for his highly successful book Statesmen in Disguise (1969), a study of the Administrative Class of the UK Civil Service from 1853 to 1966, that became the standard history of the Higher Civil Service.

He followed up with The Growth of Government (1979) which looked at the development of the role of the state, machinery and function of government since 1780. The timing of the publication, appropriately enough, aligning with the arrival of Thatcherism and the associated reform agenda.

Through books such as The Administrative ‘Revolution’ in Whitehall, The Changing Civil Service (1985), Reforming the Civil Service (1993) and Policy and Management in the British Civil Service (1995); Fry explores a range of themes including the machinery of government, the changes to ministerial responsibilities, the reform agenda, management effectiveness and the post war super-ministries. In his later works, Fry published a trio of titles about British political history covering the period of 1931 to 1990 entitled The Politics of Crisis (2001), The Politics of Decline (2005), The Politics of the Thatcher Revolution (2008).

Across his academic research and writing Fry drew on his working class upbringing and experience of working in the Civil Service. His background and life experience was one of the reasons for his non-conformist perspective. A rigorous researcher and meticulous academic, he frequently sought out insights from the rank and file Civil Servants through digesting their own association publications rather than solely focusing on the Whitehall elite.

Fry consistently wrote against the prevailing academic viewpoint of the time particularly in the analysis of Civil Service reform and their effectiveness, or lack thereof. He often credited this ability to not being aligned with a particular political tribe which gave him the freedom to write on his own terms.

He used his talent of being able to talk to anyone and his engaging matter to find political gems in the most unlikely of places. Famously quizzing the University of Leeds cleaners on who they thought would win the 1992 UK General Election. The cleaners got it right unlike the leading political scientists of the day.