POLIDANO, Charles <br/><br/>
Country report :  the bureaucrat who fell under a bus: ministerial responsability, executive agencies and the Derek Lewis affair in Britain 

 - Malden :  Wiley-Blackwell,  April 1999 
<br/><br/> Various concerns have been raised about the practicability of Next Steps and the adequacy of accountability mechanisms in Britain, particularly after the dismissal of Derek Lewis as chief executive of the Prison Service. This article critically reviews these concerns. It argues that the agency model is viable notwithstanding doubts about the practicability of the policy–operations distinction; that Next Steps is not the cause of defective accountability or the scapegoating of bureaucrats by ministers; and that a commonly proposed solution—making agency heads accountable to parliamentary select committees—has fundamental drawbacks of its own. The "conventional wisdom" that Next Steps cannot work ignores important evidence and badly needs reassessment.