Union welcomes call for greater ministerial accountability - 6 August 2006

Responding to the publication of the ippr report, Whitehall's Black Box: Accountability and Performance in the Senior Civil Service , FDA General Secretary, Jonathan Baume said:

"This is a useful contribution to an important debate about the accountability of government in the round. The FDA welcomes the report's underlying premise that there needs to be clearer accountability of the Executive - ministers and civil servants together - to Parliament, and the renewed call for a Civil Service Act. This would, however, be very challenging for ministers who, as a consequence, would come under much greater personal scrutiny than at present.

"But too often the report relies on anecdote rather than hard evidence. The report?s assessment of civil service capability is unfair, and one should be wary of taking a simplistic approach to personal accountability in the complex environment at the interface between senior civil servants and ministers. There is a danger of descending into a search for scapegoats when problems emerge.

"The ippr is in danger of proposing a model that sets in aspic the Government's current approach of a highly centralised civil service focused upon the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a 'top-down', target-driven model of public service provision. It also implies significant constitutional changes in the relationship between Parliament, ministers and senior civil servants, which are not properly explored.

"The report is weakened by its reliance on data that is often more than two years old, at a time of significant and continuing change within the civil service. Its emphasis on 'paper' qualifications is overly mechanistic and outdated, and takes too little account of the high levels of professional development in the civil service particularly since the launch of the Professional Skills for Government programme in autumn 2004.

"Nor should anyone underestimate the scale of reform currently underway in central government.

"It is also unhelpful to suggest that ministers should have greater powers over the appointment of senior civil servants. Ministers already have too a great an influence, and there are a minority but growing number of cases of ministers pressing for the appointment of civil servants they perceive as loyal and less likely to offer challenging advice, rather than the most capable individuals. This in turn weakens the capacity of departments and leaves ministers themselves more vulnerable.

"However, the FDA looks forward to further detailed discussion of the ippr's recommendations as part of the wider debate currently underway."

Ends

Notes for Editors
1. The FDA is the trade union and professional body representing the UK's 16,000 senior civil and public servants. Our members include policy advisors, senior managers, tax inspectors, economists, statisticians, accountants, special advisers, government lawyers, diplomats, crown prosecutors and NHS managers.
2. The FDA, formerly 'First Division Association', should be referred to simply as "The FDA" and can be described as "the senior public servants' union".
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