Leatherhead Matters

The scope and size of government has soared exponentially under New Labour. Government now intrudes into every corner of our lives and collects more data on individuals than at any previous time in our history. But, the loss of 2 CDs by HM Revenue & Customs, last October, containing the personal details (inc bank account details) of 25 million citizens may have fatally punctured New Labour’s “Big Government Project”

Kieran Poynter (Chairman of PriceWaterhouseCoopers) today published a fascinating report of his findings & recommendations  (from his review of information security at HRMC). It’s  a riveting, forensic  expose of a thoroughly dysfunctional organisation. This insight into one of the biggest departments of state shines a light on the culture of British government and the civil service….and it’s not pretty!

If you want to read his 109 page report you can find it HERE but, I’ve tried to make it easier to find the juicy bits by highlighting (in yellow) key passages in the report.

Poynter’s report politely suggests that there is little leadership…no one is imposing themselves on this huge operational department. There is a total absence of any strategic direction for the organisation. There is a culture of sharing information (with just about anyone who requests it from within the public sector) rather than protecting it.  Meetings are called but with little thought or, consensus on the purpose or, agenda. Most of the operational level staff spend their time fixing problems rather than serving customers. We don’t get to find out what the senior civil servants spend their time on but, it’s certainly not leading the organisation.

It’s interesting that Poynter found that there was a total absence of  upward communication from operational staff to senior management to seek guidance on whether it was OK to send the details of 25 million citizens to the National Audit Office,  by untraceable internal mail on 2 unencrypted CDs. Based on conversations I’ve had with public sector staff, this is normal. If you ask difficult questions like this in the public sector  the classic response is “Do what you think is right!”. This avoids any career damaging blame should things go wrong and it discourages operational staff from asking difficult  questions in the future.

New Labour have adopted the language of business over the last decade. They talk about achieving world class performance, when they are struggling to even catch up to the average. Unlike world class businesses, New Labour constantly creates new agencies and new departments with overlapping responsibilities. They are unable to create a sense of a shared journey within the civil service because everyone knows the Minister is only likely to own his/her current portfolio for a few months. Change can’t be planned because the Minister demands attention to the latest big idea or, media driven interest.

Read the Poynter report and then ask yourself would you ever want the public sector’s operational scope to be anything other than, that which only Government’s can & must do?