SUPPLEMENTARY
LETTER FROM
THE RT
HON TESSA
JOWELL MP
In my evidence to the Committee on 14 October,
I promised you some further information. However, I understand
that following Sir Gus O'Donnell's evidence on 4 November that
he will now be writing to you with this.
Since my appearance you have requested information
about areas which it was not possible to cover on the day owing
to time pressures. This information is at Annex A.
ANNEX A
FURTHER INFORMATION ON QUESTIONS 7-10 AND
12
(7a) How would you describe the relationship
between the Cabinet Office and other departments in Whitehall?
How has this relationship evolved? How would you characterise
your own dealings with "the centre" as a departmental
minister?
(b) Various witnesses have commented
on the extent to which since 1997, the Prime Minister and the
Office of Number Ten have become increasingly involved in the
initiation and delivery of policy. Do you agree? What impact have
such initiatives as the Delivery Unit or the Capability Review
programme had on the relationship between the centre and departments?
How does the increased involvement of the centre
on policy initiation and delivery impinge upon the Cabinet Office's
efforts to "balance central direction and oversight with
the development and ownership of improvement by departments themselves"?
Do you agree with Sir Robin Mountfield that there
may be a "trend to a more presidential style of Prime Ministership"?
Relationships between the Cabinet Office and
other departments are good. Although the Cabinet Office's one
overarching aim is "Making Government Work Better" departments
are, and should remain, strong and robust, and innovative.
The Prime Minister's Delivery Unit, although based
in the `centre', exists to ensure that all departments have access
to the best advice on how to continually improve delivery and
that Ministers collectively have access to information about the
performance of priority areas. Capability Reviews, which were
initiated by the Cabinet Secretary, have opened up Whitehall to
external challenge and provided Permanent Secretaries with the
opportunity to gain highly detailed objective assessment of performance
from experts in both the public and private sectors.
I believe that it is to the Government's advantage
that resource at "the centre" instigates and oversees
some policy priorities, particularly in the early stages of development,
and also helps Departments drive through their own aims and objectives.
8. How would you respond to the concerns of some
witnesses that the role of Cabinet Office Minister has not been
an effective one in recent years?
Supplementary—Can you provide a list of
your responsibilities as Minister for the Cabinet Office, as well
as any clarification of these duties that the Committee might
find useful?
The role of the Cabinet Office is to support
the Prime Minister, support the Cabinet and strengthen the Civil
Service.
As such the role of the Minister for the Cabinet
Office evolves in a similar way to the role of the `centre'. Many
of the functions of the Cabinet Office are long-standing and ongoing
(such as its co-ordination functions), whilst it also flexibly
responds to new requirements. Changes since 1997 have reflected
what the UK and Government has required "the centre"
to do to meet policy and delivery challenges. The Prime Ministers
Delivery Unit, for example, has driven public service improvements,
the Office of the E-envoy and subsequent work has led to innovative
UK use of the internet to change service delivery to benefit users.
Under the current Prime Minister this evolution has continued.
The National Economic Council (NEC) was established to reflect
new economic priorities and the recession. The Democratic Renewal
Council (DRC) set up to drive democratic reforms.
Over the past few years the Centre has evolved
so it can continue to make Government work better. Changes in
the Cabinet Office include:
— Stronger strategy and performance monitoring
functions—several new units have been formed to help the
Prime Minister drive his agenda, including the Strategy Unit and
PM's Delivery Unit (now in HM Treasury).
— Stronger coordination of security, intelligence
and resilience issues. Changes include: Civil Contingencies Secretariat
joining Cabinet Office from the Home Office in 2001; the creation
and operation of the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR); and
more recently the creation of the Office of Cyber Security.
— Leading the Civil Service in new and
innovative ways—most noticeably through creating a Civil
Service leadership team of Permanent Secretaries and the Top 200
including the governance bodies such as PSMG and CSSB, and creating
profession leads. The Capability Reviews are also a major innovation.
— New forms of Cabinet Committees have
been introduced to tackle priority challenges—most noticeably
the National Economic Council (NEC) in 2008, but also more recently
the Democratic Renewal Council and Domestic Policy Council. Different
forms of official groups and secretariats have also emerged to
support these (eg NEC (O)).
The recently published List of Ministerial
Responsibilities, copies of which were provided to the Committee,
sets out my duties as Minister for the Cabinet Office.
9. How has the relationship between ministers,
civil servants and special advisers evolved since 1997 and what
issues have these changes raised?
In my experience, civil servants and special
advisers work very well together recognising that for a policy
to work it needs political context as well as a range of public
service skills. You cannot make good deliverable policy out of
context, and in my view the civil service has a got a lot better
at positively looking for external input from business, academia,
think tanks etc.
10. How would you characterise the role and function
of the Cabinet Secretary? How has this role evolved? How would
you respond to Dr Heffernan's observation that the personal authority
of the Cabinet Secretary "has probably diminished in the
past 10 years"?
Peter Riddell suggested that the role of Cabinet
Secretary has changed from that of "key co-ordinator of policy
advice" to "personnel [head] of the Civil Service and
in charge of delivery", and that Lords Butler, Wilson and
Turnbull had had "a less direct relationship on the big strategic
decisions ... than would have been true, say, of Norman Brook
and Trend and Hunt." He also suggested that there is a conflict
between these two roles that weakens the Cabinet Office. How do
you respond to this assessment?
The current configuration of responsibilities works
well: the Cabinet Secretary, as principal advisor to the Prime
Minister (including in his role as Minister for the Civil Service)
and to the Cabinet, is also responsible for ensuring that the
Civil Service has the capability to support the Government in
delivering its agenda.
It also makes good sense for the Cabinet Secretary
to be the head of the Cabinet Office. In that role, the Cabinet
Secretary is responsible for the teams through which the functions
of Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service are
discharged.
The Cabinet Secretary retains an important and
central role in providing strategic policy advice. He chairs (at
official level) the three key committees bringing together policy
officials—the National Economic Council (NEC), the Democratic
Renewal Council (DRC), and the Domestic Policy Committee (DPC).
The Cabinet Secretary has a strong focus on
the capability of departments, across the range of their activities,
as evidenced by the capability reviews. This capability encompasses
policy formulation, policy implementation, operational delivery
as well as leadership.
12. What changes would you advocate to improve
both the current role and functions of the Cabinet Office and
the centre of government more generally?
What is your view of the idea of merging the Cabinet
Office with the Prime Minister's Office to create an "Office
of the Prime Minister and Cabinet"?
Your submission states that the capability review
of the Cabinet Office showed that "some areas required further
work". What further work is required?
The centre of Government should continue to
ensure it is no larger than it needs to be to get the job done
and that it has the skills and personnel it needs to respond flexibly
as requirements change. This is what it does best and should continue
to do.
I believe it is more important to get things done
rather than having dialogue about what "the centre"
is called. This in my view is more important than whether we have
a "Prime Minister's Department".
The three specific areas highlighted in the
Cabinet Office Capability Review which were identified as requiring
further work were:
— Building a Civil Service to meet the
challenges of the future:
The Cabinet Office has improved leadership and teamwork
at the top end of the Civil Service through strengthened collaboration
in the Civil Service Steering Board, Permanent Secretaries Management
Group and the Top 200 Group.
— Prioritising Cabinet Office objectives:
The Cabinet Office Board has been working hard to
identify the most important aspects of our work to support the
Prime Minister, support the Cabinet and lead the Civil Service.
— Improving "models of delivery"
across the Civil Service and accountability within the Cabinet
Office:
The Cabinet Office is working in ever closer collaboration
with the Treasury, for example to share and come to a single assessment
of delivery against government-wide objectives.
15 December 2009
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