24 February 2006
Much of Whitehall's reform agenda is incompatible with its current constitutional position – a situation that could be solved by a Civil Service Act, according to the sector's former appointments watchdog.
In evidence to the Commons' public administration select committee, published on February 16, Baroness Prashar says that Whitehall's attempts to become outward-facing and focused on service provision could go hand-in-hand with traditional civil service values only if its constitutional position were legally clarified.
Prashar, who stepped down as first civil service commissioner last month, had earlier appeared before the committee, which is investigating the relationship between civil servants and ministers in the context of the reform plans.
'Over the years, not much attention has been paid to the development of the civil service,' she told the committee. 'Insufficient investment… together with a focus mainly on one part of its role, working with ministers, has led to an organisation today that is not always able to keep pace with the demands being placed on it.'
In her evidence, Prashar dismisses claims that the proposed reforms would politicise the civil service by requiring closer working with ministers, eroding its traditional independence.
Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell and his predecessors have been pushing Whitehall to become more professional. He wants the service to improve its policy advice and leadership capabilities and to focus on delivering and managing government policies.
'The current reform is on the right track,' Prashar states in her evidence. '[But] much of that reform is incompatible with the current constitutional position of our civil service.'
'What do we need to do? It seems to me that… if we were to get the Civil Service Act and promote the code [of practice], we would then disentangle the constitutional position of the civil service from the issues to do with its management and its organisational development.'
The PASC, chaired by influential Labour MP Tony Wright, has long pushed for a Civil Service Act. More recently, O'Donnell has indicated that he supports codifying the role of the civil service amid threats to its independence, such as the creeping influence of ministerial special advisers.
Prashar warns: 'If you introduce a political layer and people move along with ministers or there is a cadre, then it would cease to offer the best advice.'
But committee member Kelvin Hopkins said that the changes proposed by Prashar and others could come too late. 'For too long, the process has been developing to a point where the special advisers were effectively telling the civil servants what to do, and we have lost that independence of the civil service that [Prashar] prizes so much.'
DTI 'well on the way' to meeting job cuts target
Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson is confident that his department will complete its planned job cuts long before Chancellor Gordon Brown's deadline of 2008.
Johnson has released new figures on the number of civil servants employed across the DTI and its regional government offices since Sir Peter Gershon's 2004 efficiency review. Gershon's report called for 80,000 jobs to be cut across Whitehall.
The DTI has to slash 1,010 civil service posts by 2007/08.
Responding to a parliamentary question, Johnson revealed on February 15 that core DTI numbers had fallen from 4,180 full-time equivalent posts in April 2004 to 3,402 by February 2006.
'The regional government offices have also been reduced by 80 posts, giving a total reduction of 858 against our target of 1,010,' he said.
'The DTI is confident that the 1,010 target will be met early.'
Departments ignoring race equality law
Whitehall departments are 'perilously close' to being forced to comply with UK race relations law, the Commission for Racial Equality warned this week.
The CRE, which has the power to enforce compliance with the Race Relations Act 2000, said: 'Whitehall departments have failed in their duty to put race equality at the heart of their service delivery.'
CRE officials reported on February 19 that 15 government departments were 'non-compliant' with the legal requirement to assess new policies and laws for any negative effect on race equality.
International Development, Health, Trade & Industry and the Treasury are among the departments that failed to carry out impact assessments between April 2004 and March 2005 – despite introducing hundreds of new policies.
Nick Johnson, CRE director of policy and public sector, said that legislation such as the Children Act would have benefited from a race impact assessment.
'Race equality should not be treated as an add-on, but mainstreamed into all policies. The consequences of ignoring it can be dramatic. Who would believe that health, education and business policies would not have an impact on race?'
Click here for details of the departments named by the CRE (this will open up a new browser window)
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