Is Universal Credit on the brink of disaster? It’s rather too early to tell whether this mammoth reform of the benefits system really is doomed, in spite of last week’s warning from the Major Projects Authority. But whether it sinks or swims will not be because of the current structure of the Whitehall machine. I’ve written about the problems with the civil service, and how reforming ministers have to perform bypass surgery just to get things done in this week’s magazine. But it’s worth considering the five things that would make a big difference to the ability of the machine to deliver big projects. They are:
1. Responsibility. As Bernard Jenkin explains in the piece, private sector workers can make one project their entire career. In the civil service, officials move around. This leads not just to poor institutional memory, but also a lack of accountability when things go wrong.
2.
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