Who said what to whom? Ministers have just given themselves the right to appoint more people to their private offices including more people from outside the civil service. The purpose is to strengthen their hand in running departments. But guidance issued by the Cabinet Office, ie signed off by Francis Maude, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, on Wednesday includes the commitment that “advice from officials in the Department must go to the Minister unaltered.”
What does it mean? Extended Ministerial offices will have the capacity to range more widely, explore issues in more depth and give more detailed instructions. Ministers are the ones accountable to Parliament after all. But the proviso that advice must get through to the Minister unaltered will mean that it’s still possible for civil servants to speak truth to power - or to put their concerns on the record for future discovery.
What could go wrong? There’s an implicit deal in Whitehall that civil servants get to influence in private in exchange for keeping their views to themselves in public. If Ministers’ offices become a ring of steel around the Minister and the opportunity to influence in private diminishes, then civil servants might want to distance themselves from certain decisions, sowing the seeds of distrust and fragmentation. Especially in the run up to the 2015 election, as civil servants start to think about a new government, while the extended Ministerial offices try to eke out fresh announcements, this might mean there are two departments within each building.
When will we know? It will be interesting to watch Select Committee appearances by senior officials in departments where the Minister has extended their office. They might let a bit more of their private views out into public. Equally, Ministers might want more boldly to claim the credit for going against the advice of their department. We might hear some of them suggesting that, while their own office is great, most of the rest of the department can just be scrapped.
Commitment rating: 2
This is an experiment in statecraft and there are bound to be some teething problems. This guidance will be rewritten several times, at least in practice, over the next 18 months.
