Parliament and the political process

The UK has no equivalent of the US’s state of the union speech – when the President holds the Houses of Congress in awe with a tour of the world interwoven with some folksy stories and gets a standing ovation. Instead we have the odd ritual of the Queen announcing a series of legislative...

What’s the role of finance at the centre of any complex sets of organisations? Sir Nick Macpherson recently set out a clear view in regard to the Treasury. It ‘sets the public expenditure totals,’ said the permanent secretary. It does not involve itself in ‘the efficiency improvements necessary to maintain services at a time...

Be careful what you wish for was central theme of a fascinating seminar about public inquiries held at the Institute for Government just before Easter—which featured Lord Butler, who chaired the privy counsellor inquiry into intelligence about weapons of mass destruction ahead of the Iraq war; Lord Bichard, who ran the inquiry into child...

One permanent secretary said “appearing before the PAC doesn’t change the price of fish”. Officials at HMRC and the Care Quality Commission may take a different view but it remains a fair question. Would defining better the respective roles of ministers and civil servants transform things? Will the latest civil service reforms make all...

Leveson’s recommendation for a “genuinely independent and effective system of self-regulation” by the press has become the subject of 2 am deal stitched up by party leaders followed by a self-congratulatory vote in favour in the Commons. Francis consists of the shock and awe of a near 2,000 page report with almost 2,000 pages...

The New Zealand minister for the Civil Service, Dr Jonathan Coleman, was in the UK this week and spoke at New Zealand House about their government reform programme. This focuses on ten measurable results which address complex issues cutting across department boundaries, such as reducing the rate of assaults on children and cutting long-term...

The Liaison Committee brings together the chairs of other select committees to look at issues of common concern and to foster good practice – as well as playing the higher-profile role of taking evidence from the Prime Minister three times a year and this week, for the first time, the Deputy Prime Minister. Our...

It’s no secret that relations at the top of Whitehall have been strained in recent months, with frustrations played out across the press. Trust seems more fragile than ever. Against this backdrop, the issue of how much ministers should be involved in civil service appointments is, unfortunately, becoming seen as a front in a...

This is a murky, and still unresolved, affair in which Sir Jeremy played a peripheral role. He was asked by David Cameron to examine whether two e-mails sent by a constituent of John Randall, the Deputy Chief Whip, changed the Prime Minister’s original assessment of the Chief Whip’s conduct. Sir Jeremy concluded that the...

There should have been a further column saying whether a commitment has been fully met, partially met, in progress, not met or dumped, with an appropriate explanation. We know that inside Whitehall, progress is being tracked in these terms. At the launch of our Open Letter last March, Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary,...