My new book Ministerial Leadership is based on research into ministerial practice – specifically an analysis of the nearly 150 interviews with former ministers undertaken by the Institute for Government since 2015 for its Ministers Reflectarchive.
The book argues that the relationship between ministers and civil servants has changed significantly in recent decades, as ministers have placed greater emphasis on delivery and implementation since the New Labour years. Experience in government led to Labour ministers internalising the delivery agenda, and this focus was retained in the Coalition government of 2010-15 and by the Conservative governments at least until 2017. The twin pressures of Brexit and Covid then knocked things off course.
Former ministers identified a lack of front-line delivery experience amongst senior civil servants. There are criticisms of the way in which the civil service manages projects. Former ministers argue that delivery and policy cannot be separated. This cuts across the separation of roles between ministers and civil servants.
Many former ministers identify other areas of weak capacity in the civil service, including specific skills in digital systems and real-time data analysis and modelling. A significant number complain about the weakness of organisational memory, caused in many cases by the speed of churn as civil servants move jobs. Some further believe that the Civil Service also lacks capacity to think about the long-term challenges facing the country.
The recent report by Francis Maude on governance and accountability of the civil service suggests a bipartisan consensus now exists around this delivery agenda. The rise of the delivery-focused minister means ministers are now more actively engaged in issues which might once have been assumed to have been the responsibility of the civil service alone.
