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You are here: Home / Whitehall Watch / Capable in a Crisis?

Capable in a Crisis?

Colin Talbot By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted: February 20, 2009

Sir Gus O’Donnell, head of the UK civil service, in a recent speech outlined why he thought the British civil service would perform well in the current financial and economic crisis. In an article – “Mandarin-tinted glasses” – published in Public Finance magazine, I ask questions just how well Whitehall is really doing – based on their reports of their performance. Both on their ‘Public Service Agreements’ and ‘Capability Reviews’ Whitehall have assessed themselves as doing a mediocre job at best. And strangely, the figures show that the better their ‘capability’, the worse their actual ‘performance’. Paradoxically though, Sir Gus may be right: the British civil service loves nothing so much as a good national crisis. It’s running the shop in normal times they are not so good at.

Gus  O’Donnells’ speech

NAO report

Story picked up by Nick Timmins in the Financial Times 2nd Mar 2009

Tagged With: Civil Service, efficiency, government, NAO, performance, Whitehall

About Colin Talbot

Colin Talbot is a Professor of Government, a former Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee and the Public Administration Select Committee and has appeared as expert witness many times in Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and NI Assembly. He's also advised Governments from the USA to Japan.

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