Gove backs report on shaking up Whitehall mandarins

Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, has backed the findings of a new report advocating broad-ranging reform of the UK’s civil service, with a focus on wider recruitment and more accountability for senior officials.

The Johnson government is planning a shake up of Whitehall in the wake of Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic, and a white paper on civil service reform is expected to set out plans to reform the permanent structures of the state.

Government Reimagined, published on Monday by the influential think-tank Policy Exchange, sets out 10 criteria for improving the civil service with faster adoption of technology and recruitment of officials from “a wide range of backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives.”

The report states that greater emphasis should be put on performance rather than seniority, with pay rewards for those who develop professional qualifications. Its findings were endorsed by Gove, who is leading the Whitehall reform agenda.

“If we are to face the blizzard of future technological, environmental, and economic challenges and changes, we must embark on a reform and modernisation programme so that government serves the public better,” Gove said.

“Ministers and officials will ensure the promotion of the most capable civil servants, with promotion based on talent rather than time served,” he added.

Contracts for permanent secretaries, who oversee government departments, should be conditional on their delivery record, the report said. Ministers should also be able to define their strategic priorities directly to these senior officials.

The report also argued that the turnover of ministers should be reduced, with fewer cabinet reshuffles and that greater efforts should be made to “attract, support and retain external recruits” to the civil service.

The report’s recommendations also cover ministers and special advisers, for whom formal training should be introduced, it said.

Polling conducted by Policy Exchange highlighted the scale of public demand for change. Of those polled, 23 per cent of Britons felt that the civil service “does not understand people like them”, while 72 per cent supported the idea of reforming the state to be better prepared for future threats, such as another pandemic.

Lord Mark Sedwill, the former head of the civil service, described the report as “authoritative” and said that all parts of the state should follow its recommendations.

Lord Nicholas Macpherson, who was permanent secretary of the Treasury, said that civil servants were “too often focused on crisis management and firefighting to give reform sustained attention” and agreed that talent needed to be better developed.

“There is huge merit in incentivising civil servants to succeed, ensuring they spend more time doing a job than learning a job so that the taxpayer benefits from their expertise, and in enabling faster promotion for the brightest and best,” he said.