Spare a Thought for the Transport Minister

Professor Eric Sampson has had a public service career which has spanned almost 40 years, in which he has tried to support the policies and plans of a large number of Transport Ministers who represented a range of political affiliations. The near-impossibility of requiring Ministers to make evidence-based transport decisions against a background of "management" pressures, while at the same time being expected to follow their party's political and financial agendas, became of increasing concern to him. These pressures are as follows: safety, environmental impact, throughput, accessibility and inclusion, integration, privacy and security. This lecture offers reflection on the role of Ministers' full-time official advisors - the Civil Service - and the ways in which it can be difficult to find a path between the different pressures when a real issue emerges. Real examples are used.