Senior public servants in Britain are much more intimidating creatures, I believe, to members of Parliament--and even to cabinet ministers--than they often are in Canada. Somebody like the current cabinet secretary has immense influence, has survived I believe four prime ministers, and in many ways is a counter-power to the elected politicians.
It's part of something where I believe Dicey went very seriously wrong in saying that ministerial responsibility is the only responsibility in our system, because the British, long before the Canadians, recognized that in some measures the public servants were autonomous and had to make their own decisions on their responsibilities, which were different from the ministers'.
Now we have recognized that in Canada, with the introduction of the accounting officer principle by this government in their legislation. The accounting officer approach does not extend to things that are non-financial and non-administrative, like the giving of a grant here, and I think that's right that the minister should have the final decision, but we do not have a mechanism that allows a civil servant who feels that his or her advice has been misrepresented by a minister to express that publicly.