The cabinet secretary should apologise for the Windrush, Grenfell, Post Office, infected blood and Hillsborough scandals, former permanent secretary Michael Bichard has said.
Lord Bichard, a crossbench peer, told CSW that the head of the civil service needs to take responsibility for the series of civil and public service scandals which date back to the early 1970s.
"I think we've had five or six examples of where the state has failed citizens," he said. "And whilst it’s always easy to say it’s the political class that have failed – and there have been some failures from politicians – it's also without doubt the civil service and the public service that has failed."
In a speech to be delivered at the House of Lords next week, Bichard will call for the new Labour government and the civil service to “re-establish trust and the standards of behaviour which the public has the right to expect”, and say that this should start with an apology for the series of scandals dating back to the early 1970s.
Asked by CSW who in government he believes the apology should come from, Bichard said: “I'm more concerned that the leadership of the civil service should apologise.
“So I’d quite like actually the cabinet secretary, if you want a name, to say we've had a series of worrying failures, IBI, the Post Office, Windrush, Grenfell, Hillsborough, and we can't just take those as separate isolated incidents. We need to be asking ourselves, ‘Is there an issue here which ranges across public service?’ And as the leader of the public services, I think he should apologise for the failings that have occurred.”
Having chaired an expert group advising the infected blood inquiry, Bichard said it was “quite clear” to him from that experience, and from the inquiry's findings, that public servants failed in their duty.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said Case had apologised on behalf of the civil service after the infected blood inquiry concluded.
A report from the Institute for Government in 2018 found crises such as the Grenfell fire and Windrush immigration scandal were affected by "the same patterns of failure repeatedly occuring". It criticised “fundamental gaps” in accountability and a system that allows ministers and officials to blame each other for mistakes.
Bichard, a former perm sec at the Department for Education and Employment, is calling on the new Labour government and the civil service to reform a system “which is excessively defensive, reluctant to learn the lessons of failure and too focused on protecting government ministers and the reputation of departments at the expense of the public”.
He is planning to give the speech on standards in the House of Lords on 23 July, when he will call on Keir Starmer’s new administration to “take decisive action” to restore trust in government.
Bichard, who was the founding director of the Institute of Government,wil call for reforms to standards in public life, including revisiting the Nolan principles, and strengthening the civil service and ministerial codes and how they are enforced .
He told CSW the government he believes the reforms could take place within Labour’s planned ethics and integrity commission. Under Labour’s plans, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments and the independent adviser on ministers’ interests would be absorbed by the new ethics watchdog, which would be placed on a statutory footing.
On reforming the codes, Bichard said they should put more emphasis on the needs of individual citizens, and recommended that the first principle should be: “A public office holder’s primary responsibility is to act for the benefit of the public and to treat people with respect and consideration.”
He also wants the ministerial code to become statutory, with enforcement no longer left to the “convenience or whim” of the prime minister. Labour has promised to give the PM’s standards adviser the power to independently launch investigations but has said it would still leave enforcement in the PM’s hands.
Bichard also suggested giving permanent secretaries powers to seek ministerial directions for concerns beyond those related to the Treasury's Managing Public Money guidance, such as when a ministerial instruction would lead to a breach of a code of conduct.
But he added: “It's not just about having codes, it's ensuring that there is some accountability if those codes are breached.”
Bichard told CSW he would like a commission to also look into how “we can ensure that the outcome of public inquiries like the Infected Blood Inquiry are actually monitored and put into practice".
“One of the problems we have at the moment is we have people making very good recommendations but they don't get followed up,” he said.
Bichard chaired the 2004 Soham Inquiry, which looked into how Ian Huntley had been able to work in schools prior to murdering two girls, despite having been previously investigated by police for crimes including indecent assault and rape. Bichard said he had insisted that the inquiry should have a procedure to follow up on recommendations, and added that if he had not done so, “we wouldn't now have a vetting and barring scheme, we wouldn't now have a national police intelligence system”.
Bichard’s House of Lords speech was also going to call for the introduction of a statutory duty of candour for public servants, plans for which the government confirmed yesterday.
Following yesterday's announcement, Bichard told CSW he was "delighted to see the commitment to a duty of candour in the Kings Speech" but added that "we need to take much more comprehensive action to raise standards and prevent the kind of scandals we have seen so often recently" .
"The only way to achieve that is to review the Nolan Principles and ensure that public office holders are held to account where breaches occur," he said.
Another of the reforms Bichard has suggested seeks to bring central government accountability mechanisms in line with those for local authorities. In 1989, the government implemented new legislation requiring local authorities to appoint monitoring officers who have a statutory duty to ensure that councils fulfil their statutory obligations and apply their codes of conduct.
“I think we should ask ourselves why central government has not done the same,” Bichard told CSW.
Bichard said now is “the moment” to make these reforms, as Starmer's big majority in parliament means he has a mandate to “tackle really big, difficult, controversial issues”.
The peer will warn in the House of Lords speech, which was published in the Public Money and Management journal today, that it would be a "great mistake” if Labour fails to “take action and reset the expectations of state institutions and public office holders”.
“I think there are a series of questions that should be at least asked in the light of this group of failings,” he will say. “The danger is that this is just going to be left and we're going to move on. I think that would be a great mistake. And I think it would be a slight on the victims of these various failures.”
Bichard will also say that he is not suggesting that the government must follow his specific recommendations, as “others will have their own ideas on how better to enforce codes of conduct”.
“My point is that, in the UK, the loss of trust in government, politicians, public servants and the civil service has now reached the point where it is in danger of undermining our democracy,” he will argue.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "The government is committed to restoring trust in public life, including ensuring the highest standards of integrity and honesty.
"The government is bringing forward a 'Hillsborough Law' that will place a legal duty of candour on public servants and authorities. It will act as a catalyst for change by reducing the culture of defensiveness, improving accountability for the delivery of public services, and ensuring the lack of candour uncovered by recent reports cannot happen again.
"In response to the Infected Blood Inquiry Report, the cabinet secretary apologised wholeheartedly on behalf of the civil service for the role the organisation played in failing victims and families and said that the civil service must reflect and act on the report to address the failings and change our culture."