Sir Nicholas Monck Senior civil servant who championed more transparency in government and better standards in legislation

Nick Monck was an unconventional public servant but, by common agreement among his contemporaries, one of the most civilised and approachable. Even when doing some of the toughest jobs in Whitehall, as Second Permanent Secretary in charge of controlling public expenditure in the Treasury or as Permanent Secretary in the Department of Employment, he was invariably to be seen at Whitehall committee meetings with a novel or a slim volume of poetry in his jacket pocket. \ Monck took a vigorous interest in improving the processes of government. He was an early member of the Better Government Initiative founded by Sir Christopher Foster, a former ministerial adviser and professor of economics. Monck’s particular interest was that governments should commit themselves to published standards for preparing legislation to which ParliaNigel Lawson banned him from playing ► football after his injury ment and the public could hold them. The aim was to make it more difficult for governments to impose excessive and ill-prepared laws. In “Governance in Government: A Modest Proposal”, published in...