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For once I have to agree with Barry, at least partly. Although I don't think that the monumental gaffe made by some civil servants within the Department For Transport can be construed that the Civil Service is generically unfit for purpose, I do think the role of the Civil Service as the Government's 'office' (for want of a better word) needs to be looked at.
From necessity, Government Ministers look to their departments to provide the expertise that any minister, given the diversity of their backgrounds, needs from staff specifically recruited for the task at hand. If those staff fail to give that expertise, then the whole system is structurally unsafe. It seems to me, therefore, that the senior levels of the Civil Service are at fault by recruiting staff not fit for purpose: exactly as Barry says.
I hear on Auntie this morning that Sir Ian Whatshisface, some top Civil Servant, says it was wrong to point the accusing finger at the Civil Service; well, he would, wouldn't he? Clearly we should find some other scapegoat for the fiasco; it couldn't possibly be the fault of those actually recruited to do the job, could it?