And the word of the day is … accountability. Or at least it’s the guiding ideal
behind these departmental business plans that the government is releasing. When David Cameron introduces them later he will call it a
“new system of democratic accountability”. The idea is that, if we know what each department is tasked with achieving, we can praise them should they succeed – or attack them when
they fail.
Which is all very heartening. The Tories, in particular, came to power promising to lift the bonnet on the engine of Whitehall – and they are doing just that. But transparency is only one half of the accountability story. The other is the rather more bloody, but no less crucial, business of blame. If there is no formal structure for apportioning blame – for punishing the worst performing departments and chief civil servants (or even incentivising the best) – then what does it matter if a ministry is unfit for purpose? Very little can be done about it.
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