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The 1995-96 inquiry conducted by Sir Richard Scott into exporting defense equipment into Iraq relied on an unusual collection of procedural precedents. First, the government gave Scott the power to hold a tribunal in order to question witnesses. Second, Scott was granted control over the contents of his report. Finally, Scott asserted control over excluding the press and public during testimony. Evaluation of the soundness of permitting these procedures will take many years.

The British Government commissioned Sir Richard Scott, a Lord Justice of Appeal, to conduct an inquiry on the British exports of arms and related equipment to Iraq in Nov 1992. In Feb 1996, Scott came out with a five-volume report on the British Government's political and administrative conduct toward the said issue. The Scott Inquiry has remained a story on two levels, namely, on the alleged political scandal involving the Margaret Thatcher-John Major Conservative Government and the longer-term interest among political observers of how Scott used his unprecedented investigatory powers.

One of the most influential and apparently enduring models of the political-bureaucratic relations has been the 'Whitehall model' derived from British practices. Yet the relationship between bureaucrats and politicians in Britain, often poorly understood in the past, has changed in recent years to such an extent that the continued existence of the 'Whitehall model' can be doubted. This article draws on published sources and, for background, interviews conducted since 1989 with higher (Grade III and above) civil servants and current or former ministers to explore how and why the Whitehall model is threatened with extinction. The wider implications of this development for British policy making and for the study of the relations between bureaucrats and politicians are explored., The state of the bureaucracy in Britain and its relationship with politicians has become a matter of almost public attention. Long an area that was of limited interest to practitioners [...]

This gripping book recounts the British governments greatest domestic policy disasters of modem times, perhaps of the century: the devising, enactment, implementation, collapse, and replacement of the Community Charge, or [...]

The policies and pledges of the UK's main political parties on higher education are discussed. The Labour government's aim to strengthen and expand universities and the alternative proposals of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are examined.