Policy

Civil servants should be prepared to see further significant changes to their accountability arrangements, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told CSW yesterday after he announced plans to publish permanent secretaries’ objectives online.

Civil servants should not be experts in any particular fields, but instead should be generalist administrators, Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin said in a speech at the Institute for Government on Monday.

The think tank contracted by the Cabinet Office to provide external policy advice on the future of civil service accountability has published research setting out its conclusions on the topic, CSW can reveal.

Civil servants are split over whether outsourcing policymaking is a good idea in principle, but a clear majority have concerns about implementation, exclusive research by CSW has revealed. The greatest concern is that ministers will commission policy work from favoured institutions, creating “unchallenged bias” in the policymaking process.

More than half – 56 per cent – of all senior civil servants and grade six and seven officials believe that the Freedom of Information Act sometimes prevents open and honest policy discussions, exclusive research by CSW has found.

The Justice Select Committee’s review of the Freedom of Information Act is “an opportunity missed to create more certainty around policy advice”, former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell has told CSW.

Exploitation of the vast quantities of subjective data from social media sites and internet forums offers Whitehall decision-makers new opportunities to fine-tune policy based on public opinion, experts told a civil service seminar yesterday.

Good ideas on policymaking meet risky ones on accountability

Civil servants in the Department of Health (DH) have raised concerns over its approach to policymaking, its risk-assessment skills and its effectiveness at consulting stakeholders, an exclusive opinion poll for CSW has found.

Civil servants support moves to increase the transparency of government and to devolve powers down to local government and communities, but are strongly opposed to outsourcing delivery to the private and voluntary sectors, an exclusive poll by CSW has found.

The Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) is in competition with ministers’ special advisers, friends, think tanks and other groups, NICS permanent secretary Malcolm McKibbin has said, and must demonstrate to politicians that its advice is the highest quality if ministers “are to properly value our information and our service.”