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Thursday 4 December 2008

The wise woman of Whitehall

An audience with the wise woman of Whitehall

An interview with Janet Paraskeva

Meanwhile, she already has plenty on her plate as a non-executive board member of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, an independent member of the Consumer Council for Water and Chair of the Olympic Lottery Distributor. This week she acquired yet another hat, as she was appointed chair of the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission: a formidable task.

She has also found herself an initially reluctant role model for gay and lesbian people, and registered a civil partnership with her long-term partner, Mary, last year. ‘I have a mixed feeling about [discussing my private life], I have to say. Sometimes I wish it didn’t have to happen, I wish it was ordinary enough for people not to have to comment — but it isn’t,’ she says. ‘Actually it was in the Law Society, just before I left, when somebody said how many people had come to work for that organisation because they felt it was a safe place to be now. And I just thought, oh crikey, it does matter.’

As First Civil Service Commissioner, her day-to-day work involves handling appeals and grievances from civil servants dissatisfied with redress within their own departments (‘half a dozen or so’ a year), spreading the recruitment net as widely as possible and persuading the most able young people that Whitehall is no longer the caricature of Yes, Minister and that ‘the business of government is not conducted in the Athenaeum’. There is also the question of salaries, and the murmurings of discontent in the Civil Service that outside appointees are hired at inflated rates, while successful internal candidates sometimes end up with a pay package below the advertised level.

‘We are very concerned about salaries, in terms of the morale of the existing civil servants. If they do come through and against open competition get the job — and then they are paid significantly less than the advertised rate, what are we saying? Are we saying people aren’t worth the rate for the job?’

Mindful of the Prime Minister’s recent speech on liberty, and his ambitions to extend Freedom of Information, she believes that the existing legislation ‘makes us behave in a better fashion’ but is also keen that balance is maintained so that officials can give frank advice to ministers without it being released a few weeks later. This is sure to be a serious area of contention in Whitehall in the months ahead. ‘We need to be very, very careful that what we set up is something that doesn’t frighten the horses, frankly,’ she says.

But this does not alter her fundamental belief that trust in government generally will be enhanced ‘by being accountable and by letting people know what we do’. That, for her, is the bottom line, and it is a good one. Those who feel jaundiced about public service in this country would do well to spend an hour in Janet Paraskeva’s company. Eat your heart out, Sir Humphrey.

More articles from: Matthew d'Ancona | this section

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