1 The role of the centre of government
1. On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and
Auditor General, we took evidence from the Cabinet Secretary,
the Head of the Civil Service, and the Permanent Secretaries of
the Cabinet Office and the Treasury.[2]
2. The centre of government is responsible for coordinating
and overseeing the work of government, enabling it to achieve
its aims and priorities and ensuring there is a central view of
how government is operating as a whole. The centre also works
with departments to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
their operations, for example, by providing direction on areas
such as cost and efficiency savings, standards for financial management
and reporting, and assurance over the delivery of major projects.[3]
3. The key bodies at the centre of government are:
· The
Cabinet Office, which is responsible for ensuring the effective
operation of government and providing support to the Prime Minister,
Deputy Prime Minister and the Cabinet;
· HM Treasury,
which develops and implements the government's financial and economic
policy and, since 2008, has also led on responding to the financial
crisis; and
· The Prime Minister's
Office (Number 10), which is formally part of the Cabinet Office
but which has a distinct function as the political centre of government.
It supports the Prime Minister to set and oversee the government's
strategy and policy priorities.[4]
4. Since 2010, the Government has introduced a number
of central controls or reform programmes. These include civil
service reform, major project assurance, centralised financial
controls over areas of spending (such as procurement, consultancy
and IT), consistent data collection, shared back-office services
and a revised approach to financial management. The Government's
aim in many of these changes was to enable a coordinated government
approach, and to strengthen the 'corporate' centre. These changes
operate alongside the existing system of departmental accountability,
under which departmental Accounting Officers remain responsible
for their departments' spending.[5]
5. Our recent correspondence with both the permanent
secretaries and the ministers for the Cabinet Office and the Treasury
indicated that there are differences of emphasis on the appropriate
role of the centre. Our correspondence was prompted by concerns
about the effectiveness of the centre, which we had raised in
several of our past reports—in particular, the four reports
on the centre of government that we published together in September
2013, on civil service reform, early action, government procurement,
and integration across government.[6]
6. We wrote to three permanent secretaries (Sir Bob
Kerslake, Sir Nicholas Macpherson and Richard Heaton) in January
2014, to express our dissatisfaction with the Government's response
to our concerns about poor central leadership, which we had highlighted
in the four centre of government reports.[7]
In the permanent secretaries' reply of March 2014, they set out
their view that while the centre has an important role to play,
this is within the context of the "considerable" degree
of departmental autonomy within our system of Cabinet government
and Accounting Officer responsibility.[8]
In May 2014, the Minister for the Cabinet Office (Rt Hon Francis
Maude MP) and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Rt Hon Danny
Alexander MP) wrote to us, affirming their commitment to "a
model of government where the centre is effective, smart and challenging",
and they recognised that more needed to be done to strengthen
the centre's capability. The ministers also, in contrast to the
permanent secretaries, welcomed the Committee's and the NAO's
focus on this area.[9]
7. At our evidence session in July, the permanent
secretaries confirmed their support for the stronger, more effective
centre of government set out in the ministers' letter. Sir Bob
Kerslake said the permanent secretaries supported everything in
the ministers' letter, but wanted to emphasise the importance
of the Accounting Officer role alongside the need for a smarter
and more effective centre. Sir Nicholas Macpherson emphasised
that their letter was about the framework for the centre and that
within the framework, Accounting Officers also have an obligation
to deliver value for money across the whole of the Exchequer.[10]
The permanent secretaries considered the centre was now stronger
than it had ever been, and that departments could not have administered
the scale of the cuts they have had to make without the support
and expertise provided from the centre.[11]
8. The permanent secretaries' evidence confirmed
the consensus within government about the importance of the centre's
work with departments to improve efficiency and implement government
priorities. However, our view is that government still lacks a
precise definition of the centre's role and responsibilities,
and a clear statement of accountabilities for cross-government
initiatives. The permanent secretaries agreed to provide us with
a definition of the role and responsibilities of the centre, to
provide clarity on this fundamental point.[12]
9. Sir Bob Kerslake told us that the role of the
centre included: identifying with departments where the priorities
are; setting up systems for the centre to assess departmental
progress; and challenging departments about their plans for improvement.[13]
Sir Jeremy Heywood told us the centre had many different roles,
including: policy coordination; turning political objectives into
policy strategies; focusing departments on efficiency and reducing
public spending; catalysing good practice through units such as
the behavioural insights team; and oversight of implementation.[14]
Sir Jeremy considered that Universal Credit was a good example
of an important central intervention by the Treasury, the Cabinet
Office and the Major Projects Authority, where the centre provided
an assurance role followed by an ongoing support role.[15]
The Comptroller and Auditor General's report set out several responsibilities
for the centre:
· Articulating
a clear operating model for government;
· Providing strategic
leadership of cross-government policies or programmes;
· Exploiting
government's collective strength;
· Identifying
and implementing more efficient and effective ways of working;
· Incentivising
the right behaviour, including promoting collaboration, integration
and innovation;
· Understanding
the cross-government picture and, where appropriate, making the
best decisions for government as a whole;
· Improving governmental
capability; and
· Presenting
a coherent view.[16]
10. Soon after our evidence session, the Government
announced that the roles of Cabinet Secretary and Head of the
Civil Service will be combined, and there will be a new Chief
Executive post at the centre of government. The new Chief Executive
will lead the next phase of civil service transformation and the
government's efficiency and reform agenda. The Chief Executive
role will take on relevant functions of the Permanent Secretary
of the Cabinet Office, and will report to the Cabinet Secretary.[17]
2 C&AG's Report, The centre of government,
Session 2014-15, HC 171, 19 June 2014 Back
3
C&AG's Report, paras 1, 1.3 Back
4
C&AG's Report, paras 1.2, 1.5 Back
5
C&AG's Report, paras 2.2-2.4 Back
6
The four Committee of Public Accounts reports are: Second Report
of Session 2013-14, Early Action: landscape review, HC
133; Sixth Report of Session 2013-14, Improving government
procurement and the impact of government's ICT savings initiatives,
HC 137; Thirteenth Report of Session 2013-14, Civil Service
Reform, HC 473; Fourteenth Report of Session 2013-14, Integration
across government and Whole-Place Community Budgets, HC 472.
The government's response to the four reports was published in
HM Treasury, Treasury Minutes: Government responses on the
Second, the Sixth, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth, the Seventeenth
to the Nineteenth, the Twenty First, the Twenty Second and the
Twenty Fourth Reports from the Committee of Public Accounts. Session
2013-14, Cm 8744, November 2013. Back
7
Committee Chair's letter to permanent secretaries, 22 January
2014] Back
8
letter from Bob Kerslake, Nick Macpherson and Richard Heaton to
Committee Chair, 24 March 2014] Back
9
Francis Maude and Danny Alexander's letter to Committee Chair,
13 May 2014] Back
10
Qq 2-3, 6, 26 Back
11
Qq 14, 22-23, 85 Back
12
Qq 16-17 Back
13
Q 21 Back
14
Q 4 Back
15
Qq 31-32 Back
16
C&AG's Report, para 11 Back
17
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-announces-new-chief-executive-position-at-the-heart-of-the-civil-service Back
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