It’s 18 years since the then home secretary John Reid famously declared that the Home Office was ‘not fit for purpose’.
He told a select committee the department was inadequate in leadership, management and process, and needed ‘nothing less than a full and fundamental overhaul’.
Nearly two decades on, the same charge could be levelled at the entire Civil Service. And the same remedy may be required.
In Lord Reid’s day, most civil servants could at least be relied on to turn up at their desks. Today they seem to regard coming to work as a favour.
Sir Keir Starmer says all public services are in crisis. Yet far from trying to increase state sector productivity, his ministers actively encourage ‘flexible working’
Chancellor Rachel Reeves claims there is a massive black hole in the public finances
Even though Home Office employees are required to come in to work on just two days a week, managers say that they struggle to extract even that minimum level of effort. Is it any wonder the asylum system is such a shambles?
Sir Keir Starmer says all public services are in crisis. Yet far from trying to increase state sector productivity, his ministers actively encourage ‘flexible working’. No one objects to a degree of work-life balance, but there are limits.
Since the pandemic the size of the Civil Service has ballooned by some 90,000 to 542,000 staff. It grew by 23,000 last year alone, with the number of officials earning more than £100,000 also rocketing.
The last government pledged to cut numbers by 60,000, but despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves claiming there is a massive black hole in the public finances, Labour has scrapped that promise.
Instead, most civil servants are set to receive an inflation-busting 5 per cent pay rise, without any demand for greater productivity. It will sound to private sector workers like money for old rope.
Also, many believe Whitehall’s much-vaunted political neutrality is increasingly a sham. Senior mandarin Sue Gray’s departure from the Cabinet Office to become Sir Keir’s chief of staff served only to reinforce that belief.
It was she who produced the damning report on Partygate and Boris Johnson. Given her new role, can she really have been impartial while conducting that inquiry?
Meanwhile, we reveal today that there are a staggering 548 diversity networks within the Civil Service, representing employees of different races, religions, sexualities and lifestyle choices.
Nearly 3,000 staff are allowed to spend between ten and 50 per cent of their working hours running these groups. Shouldn’t they be doing that in their own time?
In Mr Reid’s words, there needs to be a ‘fundamental overhaul’ of Whitehall working practices. The Civil Service must rediscover its work ethic. Britain’s manifold problems will not be solved from the couch.
Migration realities
When Dame Margaret Hodge warns that Labour ignores at its peril the public concern about high levels of migration, the party should take note
Dame Margaret Hodge knows more than most about far-Right intimidation. Her parents escaped the Nazis, and as a Jewish Labour MP she took on the British National Party in the face of appalling racist abuse.
So when she warns that Labour ignores at its peril the public concern about high levels of migration, the party should take note.
‘We have been too frightened to talk about immigration,’ she said. ‘We have to show we can control our borders.’
These are wise words. While the recent outburst of violence was inexcusable, it is not racist or ‘far-Right’ to worry about the numbers coming into this country.
Many decent people believe they are too high and that public services and community cohesion are suffering. These are legitimate fears that cannot be dismissed as bigotry or xenophobia.
