Her Majesty's Home Civil Service, also known as the Home Civil Service, is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports the Government of the United Kingdom, which is composed of a cabinet of ministers chosen by the British prime minister, as well as three devolved administrations: the Welsh Assembly Government, the Scottish Executive and the Northern Ireland Executive.

The executive decisions of government ministers are implemented by HM Civil Service. Civil servants are employees of the Crown and not the British Parliament. Civil servants also have some traditional and statutory responsibilities which to some extent protect them from being used for the political advantage of the party in power. Senior civil servants may be called to account to Parliament.

In general use, the term civil servant in the United Kingdom does not include all public sector employees; although there is no fixed legal definition, the term is usually defined as "a servant of the Crown working in a civil capacity who is not the holder of a political (or judicial) office; the holder of certain other offices in respect of whose tenure of office special provision has been made; [or] a servant of the Crown in a personal capacity paid from the Civil List". As such, the civil service does not include government ministers (who are politically appointed), members of the British Armed Forces, police officers, local government officials, members of the National Health Service (NHS), or staff of the Royal Household. As of 2007, there are approximately 532,000 (499,000 full-time equivalent) civil servants in the Home Civil Service.

The term civil service has two different meanings:

A civil servant or public servant is a person in the public sector employed for a government department or agency. The term explicitly excludes the armed services, although civilian officials can work at "Defence Ministry" headquarters. The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the "Civil Service" varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom, for instance, only Crown employees are referred to as civil servants, county or city employees are not.

Many consider the study of civil service to be a part of the field of public administration. Workers in "non-departmental public bodies" (sometimes called "QUANGOs") may also be classed as civil servants for the purpose of statistics and possibly for their terms and conditions. Collectively a state's civil servants form its Civil Service or Public Service.

An international civil servant or international staff member is a civilian employee that is employed by an international organisation. These international civil servants do not resort under any national legislation (from which they have immunity of jurisdiction) but are governed by an internal staff regulation. All disputes related to international civil service are brought before special tribunals created by these international organisations such as, for instance, the Administrative Tribunal of the ILO.

Subhash Chandra (born 30 November 1950) is a onetime rice exporter-turned media baron and Chairman of Essel Group, that launched India's satellite television revolution. The Zee chairman dropped out after standard 12. His pioneering channel Zee TV competes with, among others, Sony Entertainment Television and STAR Plus. Other interests include packaging, theme parks, lotteries and cinema multiplexes. He started the failed Indian Cricket League, a domestic Twenty20 cricket league intended as a challenge to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the nation's governing body in the sport. In November 2009, he took over management responsibility of Daily News & Analysis (DNA), which features among the top 8 English dailies in India and is one of fastest growing English newspapers in the country.

Transnational Alternate Learning for Emancipation and Empowerment thorough Multimedia TALEEM Research Foundation was set up by Chandra as a literary, scientific and charitable society and trust in May 1996.

Sir Robert Kerslake (born 1955), is the Head of the Home Civil Service, after the retirement of the former holder, the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell; Sir Bob also continues to be Permanent Secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Originally from Bath, he graduated in Mathematics from the University of Warwick, where he was also secretary of the students' union, later qualifying as a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and holding a number of posts with councils in London before becoming Chief Executive of the London Borough of Hounslow. He moved to Sheffield to take up the post of Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council in 1997. He was chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency from 2008 to 2010, and in September 2010 was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government.^{[original research?]}