Poverty agency weakened by recruitment ban

I AGREE with all of the points made by Hugh Frazer in his excellent article on the closure of the Combat Poverty Agency (‘Silencing dissent’, July 7).

However, having spoken to Hugh that day, there is one point which he makes (and which is repeated in your editorial) that I wish to clarify.

He writes that “... the department blocked the appointment of a new director when the former director moved to a new job, thus weakening the leadership and ability to resist abolition”.