Gordon Brown’s election pledges include a promise that cabinet ministers will have to sign up to public, annual contracts outlining what they are expected to deliver. Their positions will be subject to delivery – “just as it would be in a business or any other organisation” Brown also said the head of the civil service, Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell, will be asked to “performance manage” departments’ top civil servants against their delivery of the pledges. (Note the new focus on delivery rather than the formulation of policy, which clearly now takes place elsewhere.)Whilst this makes a lot of sense in the light of Jackie Smith’s admission that she lacked the experience to be Home Secretary and needed better training, it does make one wonder if it might be possible for ministers to be appointed on merit rather than partisan affiliation. Although three out of five civil servants already work for government agencies headed by unelected chief executives, but Next Steps agencies like the prison service are ultimately part of the Home Office, headed by an elected minister, selected from the miniscule pool of talented and experienced MPs in the governing party.
Click on link to read the article by Keith Sutherland at OpenDemocracy
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