Daniel Korski

Are the Tories ready for joined-up government?

The Civil Service is readying itself for a new government. The BBC has already reported a discussion of efficiency savings among senior officials. In another part of Whitehall, work is a foot on how to set up a National Security Council should the Tories win.

I have in the last few weeks been interviewing ex-ministers and senior officials as research for a RUSI paper, due out soon after the election, on how to improve the government’s security set-up. Traipsing around various departments, a number of interesting conclusions have come to light:

– Conservative ideas for an NSC are not the same as the government’s NSID committee, however much ministers say it is, but there is yet no clarity on the Tory detail of what one official called “the second layer” of reforms.

–  Despite claims of Blair’s presidential style, most interviewees underline how much power remains with individual ministers and departments and how far away from joined-up government Britain still is.

– The UK policy on Afghanistan from 2007 is the best example of joined-up policy but few similar examples exist vis-a-vis other countries, even quite important ones.

– Unless resources are pooled to a far greater extent rather than letting departments control their own funds, little genuinely “whole-of-government” work can be expected.

– While DfID is praised for shedding some its anti-poverty militancy in recent years, it is still seen as an insufficiently cooperative part of Whitehall. There are apparently no DFID staff on secondment to MoD.   

– There are a scary number of cases of Ambassadors and DFID officials in the same country working at cross-purposes, with the support of their bureaucratic masters in London.

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