Brady unable to ‘override’ minister blocking officials giving committee evidence

The head of the Civil Service has said she has no power to override a minister’s decision to stop his officials giving evidence to their Assembly scrutiny committee.

Jayne Brady faced questions at the Education Committee on Wednesday on Education Minister Paul Givan’s direction to senior officials not to appear as witnesses.

Mr Givan ordered the move in response to what he claimed was inappropriate questioning of an official by the committee’s vice chairman, Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan, in September.

Mr Sheehan rejected any suggestion he had harassed the official.

Ms Brady was asked about the controversy as she gave evidence to committee members in Parliament Buildings.

She stressed that departmental permanent secretaries and other senior officials acted under the “direction and control” of their ministers.

Ms Brady noted that the committee had legal powers to compel witnesses to attend hearings if members wished to use them.

“It is not within my ability to override or to step in for a minister’s held accountability under his departmental order,” she added.

The region’s top civil servant insisted Mr Givan was acting within his remit and she had no role to overrule him.

“Ultimately, I cannot step in to take decisions which are not mine to take,” Ms Brady said.

Committee chairman and Alliance MLA Nick Mathison asked Ms Brady to assess the “reputational impact” on the Civil Service that an Assembly committee could not currently hear evidence from officials.

“I understand the importance of the scrutiny committees, as do the officials within all departments and indeed all ministers is my view as well,” she replied.

“But I’m not here to reflect or to provide an opinion.

“I also need to operate within my own code of ethics in the Civil Service, which is impartiality, and it’s not appropriate for me to comment on the actions of any ministers.”

Also during the hearing, Mr Sheehan asked Ms Brady to outline the findings of a review into the publicly unexplained exit of previous departmental permanent secretary Mark Browne.

The vice chairman claimed the matter was “shrouded in secrecy”.

Ms Brady explained that she was unable to discuss HR issues relating to individual members of the organisation.

“It is not possible to go into personal or personnel issues in an open session such as this, or indeed in a closed session to divulge information which would identify GDPR data confidential issues relating to any individuals,” she said.

“I have a duty of care to those individuals.

“I have also a responsibility in representing the Department of Finance as the owner of those policies to adhere to those policies and to make sure that we do not breach any employment law aspects.”