Reform UK policy chief Danny Kruger has prompted a dire warning from civil service union Prospect after suggesting that the party will scrap the civil service code if it wins power at the next general election.
Kruger said the code – which is the core expression of behaviour expectations for officials – would be replaced with “a much more stripped-down expression of the duties of civil servants”, should the party enter government.
Prospect, which represents professionals such as digital experts and scientists in the civil service, said that getting rid of the code would be cataclysmic.
Union general secretary Mike Clancy said the plans “would take a wrecking ball to the principles of an institution which serves the interests of the British people well”.
“We need a civil service that can speak truth to power, not an army of Reform yes men,” he said. “You only have to look at the United States to see the consequences of getting this wrong.”
Kruger last week published a near-5,000 word blueprint for reconfiguring the centre of government that includes scrapping the Cabinet Office, splitting up the role of cabinet secretary, significantly reducing headcount and introducing more political appointees.
The document also briefly referred to pending “further announcements” concerning the civil service code and the ministerial code.
In a subsequent interview with the Spectator, Kruger unpacked more of his thinking, saying that the planned replacement for the civil service code would emphasise the need for officials to “respect the instructions of ministers and not to have independent political priorities of their own”.
“We need to ensure that no civil servant can legitimately argue they have a duty to the constitution itself or to the Crown, rather than the elected government,” Kruger said.
He added that the new code would include a requirement not to be “involved in any kind of activism that undermines the policy of the department that they work in”.
The civil service code is underpinned by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. However, Fixing the Centre’s only reference to replacing that legislation was in the context of giving secretaries of state the power to appoint or dismiss permanent secretaries and other officials.
Kruger told the Spectator that Reform UK wants to repeal the act, arguing that it “established the civil service as a sort of independent entity with its own moral code and independent remit”.
PCS, the civil service’s biggest union, passed a motion pledging to double its financial reserves to fund industrial action in the event of a Reform UK government at its recent annual delegate conference. The union said the resources would enable it "to take the industrial, legal and campaigning decisions necessary to defend the union and our members in the event of the election of a hostile government".
‘Mistaken’ diagnosis
Independent think tank the Institute for Government applauded some of the ideas in Fixing the Centre – such as proposals for structural change and civil service pay and performance improvements.
But executive director Alex Thomas and associate director Hannah Keenan said the analysis underpinning Kruger’s proposals was “mistaken”.
“He has based his plans on a belief in the existence of an all-powerful Cabinet Office and cabinet secretary, and in a civil service that has the means and intent to resist or go-slow on government policy,” they said.
“The truth is that there is no such civil service-wide conspiracy to block ministers, or an all-powerful mandarin pulling the strings. Addressing the problem would be easier if that were the case. Unfortunately for Kruger, the centre really is that weak, and power is diffused and degraded.”
Thomas and Keenan added: “Although he has alighted on some of the right reforms, Kruger’s misdiagnosis means that his plan for governing will fall short of delivering the reform needed across the civil service.”
They also noted that proposals for political appointees to be empowered to remove civil servants at will would damage the capability of the government machine.