Did your views of the civil service change during your time in office?
I think many politicians initially believe the civil service will attempt to thwart what you would like to achieve. Of course, one realises that what you achieve is usually governed by your own determination and that intelligent, hard-working ministers will be incredibly well supported.
As with all organisations, there is the excellent and less-than-excellent. However, the longer I was a minister, the more impressed I became with the general standard of the civil service, especially the diligence and support that a good private office provides.
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What challenges did you face in working with civil servants?
In many departments there is a lack of financial and economic literacy. Once I used a well-known financial term in a meeting. My private secretary had not heard of it and so asked the other private office staff. After no one could explain to him, he was forced to admit defeat and ask me. Thereafter, a basic primer followed and the PS has now passed a diploma in economics and finance at his own instigation.
If you were Cabinet Office minister, how would you change the civil service?
In an era of financial rectitude, suggestions for expensive changes are unhelpful.
However I do think the civil service sometimes closes its mind to outside advice. In a number of policy areas, this is less than helpful. Therefore a body of outside policy advisers should be established for each department.
Additionally I have long felt – now tainted by observation and experience – that each Minister should have their own special adviser.
Finally, the complexity of law often leaves a generalist legal service floundering. I think greater outsourcing would improve and hasten decision making.
Can you tell us a story that reveals something about the civil service?
All private office staff test their new ministers in a number of ways. Having introduced a few new basic procedures and having proved I read more than the executive summary, I moved to the bottom-of-the-box test.
One weekend I read with increasing incredulity that I should sign a piece of secondary legislation that would undoubtedly cost the UK motorist – with dubious benefits. Only when I read the penultimate paragraph was it apparent that four previous ministers had refused to implement it. Despite the protestations from the civil service that this was an important regulation that the UK government should have signed years ago, it remained unsigned.