The Ramblings of an Accountant

In case the Cabinet Office and Number 10 sites have fallen over again, here's the Public Body Proposed Reforms in full. (Cut for hideously long tables)

( Department Public Body Proposed Reforms )

Full list obtained here.

You might note that out of an estimated 700-900 Public Bodies, only 364 are on this list. Where are the rest? I don't know.

That's it. Off home. I've got a space on a sofa with my name on it.

*sighs with relief*

But, at least I'm on leave tomorrow. I think I'm going to sleep in for a bit.

From New Scientist, 18th November 1989

Question: When is a document not a document?

Answer: When it is a leaked document.

Feedback was intrigued by the following comments, made last week at the inquiry into the Hinkley C nuclear power station. The hearing was awash with speculation, now confirmed, that an embarrassed British government was about to acknowledge more problems with its plan to privatise nuclear power. A hapless legal gent, one John Steel, turned up on behalf of the Department of Energy to forestall any attempt by antinuclear campaigners to use a leaked Cabinet memorandum as evidence. Steel said of the memorandum:

"Such a document is a confidential internal Governmental document which is privileged and which cannot be required to be disclosed by the inquiry . . . May I make it absolutely and abundantly clear that the Government will not voluntarily disclose any such document of this nature nor confirm or deny that the press reports which purport to be extracts from such a document are accurate or inaccurate. The document has not been published, that is, the 'leaked' Cabinet document. It is thus not in the public domain . . . The National Union of Mineworkers accept that they have extracts from the document, and that extracts were published in the press, if they be extracts, which again, I am neither confirming or denying. Therefore, it would be nonsensical to require the whole of a document, assuming it is a correct extract that has been pubished, to be disclosed by reason of the disclosure in the press of leaked parts of the document. That could lead to compounding the mystery which has already occurred, if it has occurred."

So now we know. Or do we?

*

This just proves that civil servants really *are* like Sir Humphrey at times!