Lee , John Michael , b 1932 , sociologist and historian

Professor John Michael Lee (b 1932): Lee was educated at Christ Church Oxford. From 1958 to 1967 he was Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in government at Manchester University. Lee went on an academic secondment to HM Treasury, 1967-1969. He was Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 1969-1972, and Reader in Politics at Birkbeck College, 1972-1981. He was Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bristol, 1987-1990 (Professor of Politics, 1981-1992 and Emeritus Professor 1992). From 1993 to 1995 Lee was a Visiting Fellow for the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His publications include: "Social Leaders and Public Persons" (1963); "Colonial Development and Good Government" (1967); "African Armies and Civil Order" (1969); "The Churchill Coalition" (1980); "At the Centre of Whitehall (1998 with GW Jones and June Burnham).

The Fulton Report: In 1968 the Fulton Committee urged radical reform in the civil service, recommending the establishment of agencies through the subdivision of departments on a functional basis. Other Fulton report recommendations included the establishment of a civil service college, improving in-service training practices, and increasing the role of specialists. All centred on improving the quality of management in the civil service, as a means to increased efficiency and economy. The principle civil service reforms implemented since the early 1980s have their origins in the recommendations of the Fulton Report.