Demand over civil service conflict

The FDA senior civil servants’ union says the government must resolve the conflict between civil servants’ professional and legal obligations and instructions from ministers in relation to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill.

Clause 5 of the Bill concerns interim measures indicated by the European Court of Human Rights in relation to the transfer of asylum seekers to Rwanda. “If ministers instruct civil servants not to comply with an interim measures indication, they will be putting the UK in breach of international law,” explained FDA general secretary Dave Penman.

“Whilst we recognise that it is ultimately for democratically elected ministers who are accountable to Parliament to decide how the UK should implement treaty commitments, the difficulty arises because civil servants have personal legal obligations under domestic law not to act contrary to international law.

“That obligation is not capable of being overridden by any ministerial instruction or guidance.”  

He said the government could move the Bill forward by changing the Civil Service Code to say civil servants are allowed to break the law, or by changing the primary legislation. But, he said, it is doing neither.