This, however, presents a bit of a catch 22 - if governments just take decisions without consulting they get criticised, but also get criticised for not taking decisions and instead seeking views. 4 • There can sometimes be very effective pro/cons advice set out for Ministers by the civil service which works work well for giving greater clarity to the decision taker. Eg if you do x, y will happen and that the “Civil service are good at boiling things down.” 5 Group 2 Decision-making processes It was highlighted how decision-making in reality was different compared with models of decision-making.