How are ministers more powerful than the civil service?

Ministers have access to resources other than the civil service, such as their own special advisers.
Special advisers (spads) are temporary political appointees who work for ministers, writing speeches, helping with policy ideas and corresponding with the media. Much like civil servants, special advisers help ministers to fulfil their roles.
But, unlike civil servants, special advisers are not bound to any rules requiring them to be politically neutral and impartial.
In 2017 the government employed around 83 spads, at a cost of £7.9m per year.
This is down from David Cameron’s government, which hired 97 spads at a cost of £8.4m per year, which was more than any other former majority government, surpassed only by the 107 employed by the Coalition, which employed more due to the involvement of two major political parties, each requiring their own staff.

Ministers who are popular with the party can have significant political power to pursue their agenda.
Michael Gove was not only a close ally of David Cameron, but also proved to be very popular with Conservative Party members.
In a poll conducted by the Telegraph in 2013, Conservative voters rated him as the most impressive member of the Cabinet.
As Education Secretary, Gove rapidly expanded the number of academies and free schools and redeveloped the national curriculum, exercising considerable influence over his Department.
Later, as Justice Secretary, Gove enjoyed support from a range of interest groups representing legal professionals, and cause groups promoting prison reform, giving him considerable political power within his Department and within Cabinet.
He reversed a number of the policies put in place by his predecessor, scrapping proposed changes to legal aid contracts, abandoning plans for new “secure colleges” for young offenders, lifting the ban on sending books to prisoners, and pausing the criminal courts charge.
This significant shift in policy highlights the impact individual ministers can have.

Some ministers have managed avoided responsibility for failures within their departments.
Ministers manage large departments and are also responsible for a number of government agencies, making accountability difficult.
In October 2012, the government announced that it was cancelling the competition to award the contract for running trains on the West Coast Main Line – the cancellation cost the public £50 million and several civil servants were suspended, but no minister resigned over the problems.
In 2015, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith refused to resign over the use of fabricated stories about benefit claimants on leaflets produced by his Department.