SIR BERNARD JENKIN on the Civil Service’s turbulent week

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 6 July 2020

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

Sir Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the Commons Liaison Committee, discusses a turbulent week for the Civil Service, Mark Sedwill’s departure as cabinet secretary, and the government's plans for reforming the way that government works, with Alex Thomas, Programme Director at the Institute for Government. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this special podcast in a series of things this week that we're bringing you on the government's plans for civil service reform and our commentary on it.
0:19.9	I'm Bronwyn Maddox.
0:22.3	Someone who has been thinking about the government's plans for civil service reform and our commentary on it. I'm Bronwyn Maddox. Someone who has been thinking about the government's plans for civil service reform is Bernard Jenkins, Conservative MP and chairman
0:27.0	of the liaison committee. That's the committee that brings together Commons Select Committee chairs.
0:31.4	And he wrote for us this week on the consequences for Whitehall after coronavirus. And earlier this
0:36.5	week, he spoke to our colleague Alex Thomas,
0:38.7	who has also written him a repost.
0:41.2	Sabona Jenkins, I think it's fair to say that you've thought about the civil service more than most
0:45.0	MPs. You were chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
0:49.3	and its predecessor committee, the Public Administration Committee, which scrutinises the Civil Service for more than 10 years.
0:56.9	And you published a stream of reports and thoughts on the Civil Service as part of that.
1:03.4	And your most recent contribution is an article on the Institute for Government's website about
1:09.4	coronavirus and it being a moment of enormous
1:13.1	importance for the Civil Service and reform of the Civil Service. You also said, very strikingly
1:19.0	to me, that the Civil Service is being lined up as a scapegoat to shield others from blame.
1:24.1	Why do you think that? Well, I think we've seen a bit of it in the last few days, that somehow there's an implied
1:30.4	connection between Mark Sedwell's departure and the difficulties the government has had
1:36.6	making decisions and understanding what to do. I think that this is a terrible mistake,
1:42.3	and I've already heard that permanent secretaries are
1:44.8	feeling rather demoralised by this.
1:47.3	That there are lots of things that have gone wrong, but there should be an open and unblameworthy
1:54.0	conversation about why decisions were made and why things turned out as they did so that
	...

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