Alex Thomas
@AlexGAThomas
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Civil service and policy-making @instituteforgov - ex-Cabinet Office, Defra, Dept of Health civil servant
Joined October 2010
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Who briefs things like this out? The PM still needs Javid’s vote in the HoC
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It’s *impossible* to save £8.8bn from civil service wages. The entire CS wage bill is c£9bn. Truss’s plans must refer to the wider public sector. So this isn’t mandarins moving from London, it’s nurse, teacher pay being adjusted down. Less War on Whitehall more War on Workington?
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Argh - this is really not good. Consultants cannot be the ones writing PQ answers for ministers. That’s the job of a civil service paid for by the taxpayer
Consultants Deloitte paid to draft ministers' parliamentary answers on Test and Trace
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Civil service impartiality. Much to say, including that other countries do things differently and more political models can work. But here’s why I think an impartial civil service matters
1) Recruitment on merit. The whole basis of the CS back to the 19th century
Tories consider controversial plan to politicise civil service after Raab scandal
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Main points for me from Simon Case
@CommonsPACAC
Sue Gray is in the clear - cab sec effectively endorses ACOBA conclusions and confirms no evidence of inappropriate activity while she was a civil servant
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A worryingly long list of ethical question marks around the government. Here’s something I wrote for
@guardian
Integrity is supposed to keep British ministers in line. It’s clearly not enough
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Given what he calls everyone else I’ll take this as a compliment
NB. the Institute for Government spins disinformation for the worst parts of Whitehall - e.g one of their chief clowns Alex Thomas has kept spinning that the ‘operational’ performance of Whitehall in covid was a triumph!!
IFG =
#disinformation
for the worst Sir Humphrey…
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On SAGE and Cummings...this may age badly but it’s good that No10 wants to understand the science. It’s OK to attend meetings. It’s bad that we do not know enough about govt’s scientific advice. If more was public then processology wd matter less and we might talk about substance
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Worth asking whether two V&A trustees should be using that position to raise funds for party political purposes. The Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies is here
EXC: At an auction for Tory donors last week, two prize lots were won by none other than Mohamed Amersi
The same Amersi who is at war with the Tories over... prizes he says he hasn't received from past auctions, including breakfast with Boris
CCHQ is 'furious' Amersi was there
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Amongst everything else, two years today since Jeremy Heywood died
Taking a moment
@HeywoodFndation
to a man resting in peace with his job well done, even as he looks over his glasses and works out what he’d tell us to do differently and better
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For me it’s when I took a call from the DUP (yes, that DUP) asking for a meeting with the Secretary of State. I knew there was a NI meeting in the diary. Brightly I said “oh yes, all arranged, 3pm Thursday”. But that was a meeting with Sinn Fein. They all turned up 😬
For me it’s when, as a v young intern who knew nothing about coffee, I was picking up the boss’s requested lunch of soup and flat white and returned with soup and the flattest white bread roll I could find.
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Get the best people to do the job. By definition “political recruitment” means “people I want who agree with me”, not the most skilled and able. The CS doesn’t always recruit well, but that’s a reason to improve recruitment not to abandon the model
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3) Corruption and patronage. Again, the civil service isn’t perfect but it’s basically not corrupt. Short term appointments, based on personal relationships and patronage over the levers of power will mean more PPE contract style dodgyness. Pretty clear lesson from history
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The tension between ministerial and civil service leadership in govt is coming up a lot…Rwanda, office working, diversity, all with a backdrop of more leaks than I can ever remember…What’s going on? What do ministers want to achieve? What are civil servants doing?
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2) Long-term policy making. I get that this can seem like a Trojan Horse for the perma-state, but most of the biggest problems we face don’t align with electoral cycles. On contingency planning and chronic policy problems we need more long term government thinkers
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NEW from me an
@instituteforgov
paper on “the heart of the problem”. My take on why the centre of government is too weak
I suggest the UK has the worst of all worlds: a highly centralised system of govt without the capacity to organise it from the centre
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A consequence of real terms pay cuts in the civil service - with SCS falling furthest behind... This is an SCS1 post which would have been more market competitive 15 years ago. Pay restraint & lack of flexibility means harder to get skills in as well as leading to grade inflation
Another classic from the Civil Service job board. Would you like to lead trade negotiations between Switzerland and the UK? Do you have an expert knowledge of global trade and diplomacy? Would you like to be paid many times less than those skills are worth?
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Soppy personal tweet, but very proud of my husband
@nicholasallen29
and this news
We are thrilled to announce that our Head of Chambers,
@nicholasallen29
has been appointed a Deputy High Court Judge. Congratulations Nick!
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When I first joined the civil service, there were many stories of when you were allocated a ration of carpet depending on your seniority. Finally, despite having left the CS, but thanks to lockdown and the arrival of a new chair, I have achieved rank and station
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Highly unusual. Key question is whether it was declared under the procedure for managing conflicts of interest. Then what safeguards were put in place, whether the Cabinet Office perm sec was consulted, whether the CO Audit & Risk Cttee was informed…
EXCL: Liz Truss chief of staff is being paid his salary via his lobbying firm and is only "seconded" to No10 in arrangement he won't explain
Mark Fullbrook says he's not using company for tax benefit days after govt junked IR35 reforms to make this easier
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Because
- consultants not bound by the civil service code (impartiality, objectivity)
- might be conflicts of interest
- this is accountability to Parliament - CS (generally) understands that
No fan of exclusivity for CS on most things... but on core functions like this - no
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4) Skills, knowledge and expertise. We want more digital, project management, data and policy professionals. People who really know about policy areas. That’s a reason to reduce churn (not increase it as political appointments might) and keep experts in place
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5) Impartial not independent. The civil service *is not independent*. It should work enthusiastically for the agenda of the government of the day. But impartiality means it renews its legitimacy every time it serves a different government with professionalism and skill
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6) Honesty. If I owe you personally then I’m more likely to suck up to you. Truth to power from civil servants to ministers is important - to test policy evidence, to hold everyone accountable and to support ministers making the best decisions. An impartial civil service helps
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A draft WMS is not formally classified as a secret document - would be "official sensitive" at most - and this would surely not be a resignation matter in normal times
"I have concerns about the direction of this government"
Braverman slams the door on her way out..
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I’d say it’s a healthy thing that the UK has a broadcaster willing and capable of doing both this and the Andrew/Newsnight
@maitlis
interview. Good institutions matter.
The closing monologue from the BBC was word perfect.
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That ministers of different parties can rely on the same CS to execute policy is an important binding agent for the way the state works and at its best creates a shared institutional understanding of what works and what doesn’t (severely tested in recent years)
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Blimey. And as we’ve
@instituteforgov
been saying, it’s *in Truss’s interest* to have an ethics adviser - gives issues like this somewhere to go to (most imp) work out the facts, but also (most usefully for her) to manage the story and response. Can’t keep a lid on it forever
EXCLUSIVE: Liz Truss's chief of staff has been interviewed by FBI agents about an alleged criminal plot to bribe a politician and influence a US election
Mark Fullbrook quizzed this year after detectives made secret request via Metropolitan Police and NCA
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Big news in civil service land - launch of a long-anticipated review of governance & accountability, chaired by Lord Maude. This *could* turn out to be really important. His terms of reference cover lots of civil service reform greatest hits (a🧵)
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A very happy big birthday to my wonderful husband
@nicholasallen29
Brunch, celebratory drinks, dinner, and now The Queue
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The government has announced that Gisela Stuart is its preferred candidate to lead the Civil Service Commission
@CivServComm
I think it's a real mistake for that job to go to a politician
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Or that the civil service doesn’t need to do more to reform (we write about that All The Time). But as I say here in “After Boris Johnson; what now for the civil service?” I think CS impartiality is a precious inheritance
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Three quick reactions
- obviously important the ACOBA process is followed (which the PM signs off…). How long an employment gap?
- but nature of Sue’s work over decades means she can’t unknow what she knows. What assurances can be given on future info sharing? Are they credible?
EXCL: Sue Gray has been appointed chief of staff to Labour leader Keir Starmer.
As a senior civil servant, the job offer will be subject to ACOBA process before formal confirmation.
Major coup for the Labour leader and part of an effort to prove the party is preparing for govt.
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If it had happened, such an action would change the monarchy in profound ways and be one of the most consequential acts (for the Crown) of Charles III’s reign. Even with the meeting cancelled assuming Sam’s report is correct it’s almost literally unbelievable
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So I believe in an impartial civil service. That doesn’t mean that ministers shouldn’t have more political support (just appoint extra special advisers) or that they can’t help build civil service teams in whom they have confidence (the mechanisms already exist to do that)
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Some less quick reactions
- I really don’t think this calls into question Sue’s work as a CS. I understand why some are motivated to use this re partygate etc, but that is not the Sue I worked with. CSs are allowed personal views, and Sue served PMs of all parties equally
Three quick reactions
- obviously important the ACOBA process is followed (which the PM signs off…). How long an employment gap?
- but nature of Sue’s work over decades means she can’t unknow what she knows. What assurances can be given on future info sharing? Are they credible?
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Also to radically improve the civil service’s impartial recruitment procedures, to get these people with desperately needed skills into government, not to make selection more partial and personal
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I still find this very odd and hard to defend from a public money perspective. It’s not about public policy, it’s about personal conduct and leadership. That’s on top earner Boris Johnson
Exclusive:
Rishi Sunak's government has decided to spend up to an extra £90k of taxpayers' money defending Boris Johnson over Partygate.
Contract for legal advice during privileges committee probe has been extended until 28 February 2023 and value has gone from £129k to £220k.
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Worth saying too that parts of Lord Maude’s argument here are bang on. Ministers need more support and the civil service should be better held to account - but not sure the current Raab debate is the best way to make the case
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“Duck the difficult decisions”: a montage
...("my government will not duck the tough decisions" is the trailed Johnson quote tonight) and saving the NHS from the ravages of Covid, boosting hospital capacity to 110%. Capping care bills, though, is a Johnson promise that well pre-dates Covid and has nothing to do with it.
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Some news! I’m really excited to be joining the brilliant
@instituteforgov
team in January
Institute for Government appoints Alex Thomas as new programme director for civil service –
@AlexGAThomas
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The excellent
@nicholaswatt
describes private secretaries as very senior civil servants, who run ministers’ lives. They’re mostly really not - most private secretaries are extremely hard working relatively junior civil servants. They’re really important but mostly not that senior
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Not quite sure if this is a promotion or not. But 👍 Channel 4, I’d like to thank the police and electoral administrators for their hard work, my family, and the people of .... [cut away to Huw Edwards]
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90,000 civil service job cuts would be… a lot. Ministers had previously said they’d take the civil service back to pre-Covid numbers. This would be pre-Brexit numbers.
@instituteforgov
analysis included ⬇️
Some other thoughts…
Exc: Boris Johnson 'considering 90,000 job cuts' in civil service. Pm and Chancellor met on Monday to discuss plans that will start with recruitment freeze and vacancies not filled | ITV News
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Largely ignored stories yesterday about the govt considering scrapping/pausing
@faststreamuk
- it seemed to have been squashed… but I hear it’s v much a live discussion with a decision to be taken next week. So here’s my (admittedly ex-FSer) take on why it wd be so self-harming
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When I was the civil servant responsible for advising on elections policy the independence of
@ElectoralCommUK
was extremely annoying. But it was supposed to be. For the integrity of the electoral process and cross-party confidence in the rules of the game.
Widespread anger in
@UKHouseofLords
at the proposal that
@ElectoralCommUK
must have regard to “the strategic and policy priorities of HMG” in relation to elections and referendums (
#ElectionsBill
cll 14, 15). Listen to senior Tory Lord Cormack, from 1215:
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Ludicrous. I’m all for sensible critique but this is absurd. Can’t imagine any relevant docs were too sensitive to be shared remotely, or that civil servants wouldn’t go to the office if needed. Thousands (esp those with security resps) have been in throughout the pandemic
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“So what? Big deal.”
“is said to have informally told Lord Geidt…”
We knew already that a PM unwilling to be bound by ethical standards showed the system could be gamed by bad actors and needed a total overhaul. This seems a textbook example
EXCLUSIVE🚨w/
@HarryYorke1
The BBC chairman helped arrange a guarantee on a loan of up to £800K for Boris Johnson weeks before then PM selected him for the role
Johnson was told to end Richard Sharp’s involvement in his financial affairs by Cab Office 1/7
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Remarkable. Totally remarkable. Can’t quite get my head around this
Exc:
King Charles was lined up by Number 10 to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tomorrow - just as highly contentious negotiations over the Northern Ireland Protocol were poised to come to a head
Some fear “misjudgment” dragging the King into poltics
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A thread on the PM's involvement (or not) with Nowzad evacuation decisions. I'd say there are three explanations for what happened, all of which raise questions
Oof. Difficult to see how this can be explained away...
No 10 repeatedly denied the claim the PM authorised the evacuation of Nowzad charity's staff/animals from Kabul.
But FCDO official states explicitly that he did, in private correspondence just released by
@CommonsForeign
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As people are sharing I should link (as I should have done originally) to the story by
@cazjwheeler
and
@HarryYorke1
Truss is the latest victim of a never-ending Tory death cult
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When consultancy reaches so deeply into the state (often legitimately - to buy capacity, let’s not overreact)... and assuming this is correct... were consultants answering the PQs etc because the CS didn’t have time to... or because the civil servants didn’t know the answers?
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Most important line in the report seems to be "Unfortunately...I am extremely limited in what I can say about those events and it is not possible...to provide a meaningful report"
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Can I indulge in a Nancy Pelosi story?
I was a junior private secretary in Defra in the late 2000s… climate change was still part of our remit
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives was visiting the UK
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Five years today since Jeremy Heywood died, five years where his insight, grip and empathy have been much missed. Am reminded on the anniversary how much JJH lives on with so many people
@HeywoodFndation
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Changing a country is not meant to be easy - my piece on Liz Truss
“Deliberate, incremental improvements to the way we are governed are too important to be left to the conspiracy theorists”
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On Sharp, Johnson, credit facilities & the rest - this statement from BJ’s relative Sam Blyth commits “the civil service cleared it” fallacy. The cab sec, propriety & ethics advise the PM on what to do. They don’t “clear” things (perhaps they should, but PMs might not like it)
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Can testify that Ben certainly knows his stuff. All together once again: “don’t use your personal phone for government business”. (And I’d argue if you’re a very senior minister for any business you’d rather adversaries didn’t know about)
Many security officials have experienced glazed over eyes or outright rudeness from ministers and spads when trying to explain risks around personal phones/email. It’s an open goal for our adversaries
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Outraged comments from MPs here reflect naivety about the world in which we live & how potentially hostile states operate…Of course you won’t be “told” until viable, and you haven’t been “let down”…But do take security checks for staff seriously pls
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The civil service - never out of the news… so a good day to publish my paper on impartiality: why it is important, why politicisation would be a huge mistake, and how the civil service must prove its effectiveness to successive generations of ministers
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Definitely the biggest issue facing the nation
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A structural problem with a civil servant being asked to investigate alleged criminal activity - and the Met being content with this
Good summary from
@lewis_goodall
and the boss
@bronwenmaddox
there too
Sue Gray is expected to deliver her report on No 10 parties to the PM without waiting for the police inquiry to conclude.
The police had asked for minimal references to be made to the events they are looking at.
How did we end up here?
@lewis_goodall
reports
#Newsnight
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3) Genuinely shocking lack of women, esp on the most powerful groups. Look at this chart: out of nine committees, two include no women and another two have just one female member. The PM should do better
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It'll take more than a No10 reorganisation to address the problems highlighted by Sue Gray's work. For as long as he is prime minister the character of the government will be determined by the court of Boris Johnson
Some thoughts from me
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A bit odd to amend the *civil service code* to include presumption civil servants should ignore a Rule 39 Order
- code is never that specific - is much more principle-based (which is often convenient for ministers)
- would do nothing to change requirements on other actors
BREAKING:
@nicholaswatt
reveals Government plan to win over the rebels and get the Rwanda Bill through tomorrow.
#newsnight
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This is the objective of every civil servant who ever appears in front of a select committee...
One Whitehall source told me yesterday that Cabinet Secretary Simon Case's "overall approach to the whole session is not to make news." No kidding.
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Not a football person (apart from int’l tournaments which I love) but wow Gareth Southgate is a manager who knows how to *manage*. Clear objectives, calm, backs team through good and bad, evaluates successes and failures and learns from them, open and transparent, not defensive
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It is an extraordinary report - see this for example on the Nowzad animal charity decision. No punches pulled.
I don't think I've ever read a report on govt as searing as the one from
@CommonsForeign
today. Here's my response about what should happen now
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Permanent secretary at the Treasury since April 2016. One of those who had their 5 year contract extended by Johnson. Bold to do this when HMT has a big short term job to do - understand Beth Russell and Cat Little joint acting perm sec(s)
NEW: The most senior civil servant in the Treasury, Sir Tom Scholar, has been sacked. Kwasi Kwarteng dismissed him on Tuesday. He's already gone.
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Never felt right, this, very interesting the NAO seem to agree
Watchdog criticises decision to pay Johnson's £265,000 Partygate bill
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OK, so Cummings wants us to bite, has an agenda, and has no regard for process. But… “tricked PM” is an appalling, anti-democratic, counter-productive, hubristic reason for him to be nowhere near government, ever
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I strongly agree with Robert. I think the
@NCSC
and
@Lindy_Cameron
should make a statement about this and about what measures are in place to support the Conservative party’s procedures. This is a govt/politics mixed issue but it’s too important to mess up
This should be a much bigger issue. The Tory Party is running a snap internet poll of its members to pick a Prime Minister: the most powerful office in the UK.
We don't know who can vote, how they will be checked or whether the poll will be secure.
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Government comms and The Great British Bake Off - a heady, bready mix
But the inaccurate tweet wasn't a one off. The civil service and spad codes mandate honest communication. All govts spin, but taking it too far damages public trust at the worst time
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I don’t agree with this about Sue Gray and Jeremy Heywood
Working with them both in high pressure situations, often with difficult judgement calls, I recall constructive debates, sometimes disagreements and just occasionally a bit of drama, but they were a very close team
Inside Sue Gray’s Labour Party 🌹
My profile of Starmer’s influential chief of staff 👇
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Johnson wasn’t as good at “the boring bits of the job” like parliament and “driving through changes”!
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It's a new one to add to the civil service lexicon
Drama as Home Sec disowns email sent by CCHQ blaming civil servants for going slow on small boats.
Sources says Perm Sec Matthew Rycroft went “shouty crackers” about it last night.
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Goodbye 2019; hello 2020...farewell to friends and former colleagues in
@UKCivilService
@DefraGovUK
@cabinetofficeuk
Can’t wait to start
@instituteforgov
on 13/1. But before that a trip to US incl much anticipated visits to
@LBJLibrary
@TrumanKeyWest
for good policy wonk fun!
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She decided not to shoot herself in the left foot, so chose the right
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A new (&sensible) announcement from
@RachelReevesMP
aiming to halve spending on consultants over the parliament
Consultancy spend has ⬆️⬆️⬆️ since Brexit and Covid. Reinstating controls & building civil service skills (picking up where Francis Maude left off!) is welcome
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Should say detail of CS pay is complex. £9bn is HMT figure for admin paybill. It’s a bit more than that in reality - extra HMRC, DWP costs. But Truss can only get to her numbers by making efficiencies on the *£235bn* public sector wage bill. Nurses, teachers etc outside London
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If correct, a clear breach of the Ministerial Code. Ministers have resigned or been dismissed for less
It now seems clear that the Geidt inquiry was misled by both the Prime Minister and by Lord Brownlow. He was told the PM was not aware of the identity of the donor until February 2021 - but the PM directly WhatsApped the donor to ask for more £ for the refurbishment in Nov 2020
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From the govt communications propriety guidance:
“The communication should be objective and explanatory, not biased or polemical”
“The treatment of information should be as objective as possible”
The Northern Ireland Protocol was designed to protect the peace process and respect all communities in Northern Ireland.
It is doing the opposite⤵️
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Pained to say it but leaking from the civil service (if that is what this is) seems out of control. Ministers and ex-ministers have provoked, insulted and undermined the CS and are reaping what they have sown. BUT govt can’t function without trust and no good will come of this
EXCL: Suella Braverman's Home Office civil servants have been forced to “fact-check” the home secretary’s statements to cabinet on up to six occasions -
@breeallegretti
& co reveal
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Someone in govt really loves briefing this. I hear it’s getting (even) harder to recruit e.g. digital skills because the private sector offers flex & the CS is caught between the Mail and the jobs market
Anyway read
@JordanUrban10
for a more nuanced view
Saturday’s Daily Mail: Just 2 days a week in the office for civil servants
#tomorrowspaperstoday
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So the fast stream is cancelled “for at least a year”… I’m quoted in this story about what seems like a very short term and counter-productive decision
NEW: The civil service fast stream will be cancelled for at least a year after PM pushed through policy despite some Cabinet concern
Michael Gove objected. Treasury figures critical. But leaked minutes of May 19 Cab Office board meeting show it’s all done
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Charity law is also relevant as
@drjennings
has just pointed out.
“You must avoid putting yourself in a position where your duty to your charity conflicts with your personal interests or loyalty to any other person or body”
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- difficult for the civil service, gives critics a stick. It’s one person so doesn’t in my view imply wider politicisation (CSs have become political chiefs of staff before) - but Sue is by far the most prominent. Tricky development for those defending impartiality
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Though perhaps some critics will go so over the top that their concerns totally miss the mark
Rees Mogg tells GB News: “It is hard not to feel that she has been rewarded and offered a plum job for effectively destroying a Prime Minister and creating a coup. This blows apart the idea of Civil Service impartiality. This appointment stinks."
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I am very much enjoying the similarity between US and UK local government election officers - in a good way. Am calling it “stroppy integrity” and I recall it well from when I was deputy director elections at the Cabinet Office
@AEA_Elections
@ElectoralCommUK
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I don’t understand this. Dan Rosenfield is a political appointment and - I assume - has no civil service responsibilities. He’s an ex-CS sure, but it’s the PPS who runs the civil service side of No10, and the cab sec who runs the CS as a whole. This seems v muddled
One idea being pushed is to create a new No 10 permanent secretary.
Reason being the chief of staff currently does political advice + departmental civil service duties.
Creating a new No10 perm sec would allow for a purely political chief of staff to be appointed.
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James Eadie rightly not up for game-playing on legal advice:
"he found the argument of one ... lawyer ... "considerably easier to follow and more convincing". The lawyer he cites says that it would be "very difficult" for the UK to argue it is not "breaching international law"."
NEW:
Revealed: What top legal adviser said about controversial NI Protocol plans
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My first IfG comment - as a civil servant until last month I am confident it wasn’t
@UKCivilService
resisting Brexit or causing delays. But that doesn’t mean no changes to consider to be fit for the future
Has the civil service been resisting Brexit?
@AlexGAThomas
argues that, rather than being resistant, Whitehall is responsive to clear political will – and could be helped by more special adviser appointments
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It’s part of the job of civil servants to bring the reality into the decision when necessary, to say that eg forcing office working will make it impossible to recruit people with the digital skills the government needs, or that the Rwanda scheme isn’t value for money
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Am cautious about the Covid Inquiry because I’m an expert witness - wrote a report and gave oral evidence on 13 Oct
But while Covid is rightly the focus, let’s not forget the conseqs of what’s now on the record for *everything else*. Johnson & team’s dysfunction affected it all
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And here’s a new but soon-to-be evergreen chart - we enjoyed picking out recurring themes in civil service reform
@madzbishop
@JordanUrban10
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