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Whitehall departments are preparing briefings for new ministers – with stark advice on critical issues that will need quick decisions.
As voters go to the polls, civil servants are finalising the briefing documents that will await the new ministerial teams who will begin business within hours of the result being declared.
The new prime minister will begin making announcements on posts – and potentially a reorganisation of Whitehall departments. Final ministerial posts are traditionally agreed over the weekend.
But experts warned there will be tough decisions that will need to be made quickly.
The Institute for Government said the Home Office’s admission in the final hours of the current administration that jail spaces were running out needed to be addressed quickly.
“The next government will need to free up thousands of prisons places, but with few 'good' options available to it,” it said.
Local government leaders are continuing with business as usual, including preparations for submissions to the Department for Levelling Up for councils that made requests for capitalisation directions.
Havering Council has confirmed to PF it will be submitting its improvement and transformation plan to officials. Insiders say officers are keen to hear what else a local authority can do to manage massive cost pressures linked largely to issues beyond its powers.
Civil servants at the Home Office will be waiting to hear if government policy changes on the Rwanda deportation scheme will lead to a legal action by their union being halted. They will also be assessing if they will have to write off the costs of implementation estimated to be more than £300m so far.
The First Division Association has already submitted an application for judicial review relating to the relationship of the Civil Service Code with the UK government’s Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024.
The union warns its members would be in breach of the code by continuing to implement the government’s direction.
FDA General Secretary Dave Penman said: “The government could have amended the Civil Service Code to make clear that the obligation to comply with international law does not apply in these circumstances. But instead, it chose to fudge the matter and issue guidance which it knows cannot override the Civil Service Code, any more than the instruction of a minister can.”
Policy advisers are also preparing for briefings on long-term issues that are presenting challenges that cut across Whitehall departments.
Tom Pollard of the New Economics Foundation highlighted one example: “The huge and growing number of people out of work due to illness and disability will be a major challenge for the next government.”
But as the manifestos were signed off as early as February, most public sector organisations have already accepted their ability to influence new government policy would have to look beyond the election.
So early lobbying is now under way at Whitehall departments from interest groups ready for a potential spending review in the autumn. The greater interest will come on issues that didn’t secure prominence during the political campaigning over the last six weeks.
John Merry, chair of the Key Cities group, said: “With councils ideally placed to tackle the challenges ahead, the government should give them the power to achieve net zero.”
