Labour and Tories unite to overhaul civil service and rip up its bureaucratic red tape

Power must be taken from the civil service “blob” and put back in the hands of ministers so the country can be changed for the better, a major report argues.

Figures from across the party divide have come together in support of a bold overhaul of decision-making at the heart of the UK Government.

There is deep concern that power has seeped away to unelected bodies and advisers with Government decisions subject to judicial review.

Former Labour cabinet minister Jim Murphy welcomed the new Policy Exchange report, saying: “A democratically-elected government, with a clear mandate, has the responsibility to govern. Ministers must be able, in the short time they have, to make a difference.

“Given the scale of the nation’s challenges, we cannot have mere incrementalists in Whitehall, but reformers and radicals.”

Mr Murphy said ministers must be able to “take decisions which are translated into action”.

The report warns of “extreme risk aversion” in the civil service.]

Concern about the difficulty ministers now face in making a difference to the country in shared in both Labour and Conservative circles.

Iain Mansfield, director of research at Policy Exchange said: “If the new Government is serious about getting things done, it will need to tackle the bureaucracy that puts process and paperwork ahead of real-world results – the so-called ‘blob’. Policy Exchange’s new report, Getting a Grip of the System, sets out practical steps on how to cut through the red tape.

“The Government has a right to try to deliver on the mandate on which it was elected – and to be voted out at the next election if it fails to do so.”

The report, co-authored by a former director in the Cabinet Office and two former Labour and Conservative special advisers, claims the senior civil service has expanded by 67 per cent since 2012 . It pushes for a leaner, better trained and higher paid senior civil service, with numbers reduced by 40 per cent but salaries raised by up to 30 per cent.

The report also calls for the civil service code to be tightened up so civil servants do not block work on Ministerial priorities. It warns of inexperience among ministers, stating that the average tenure among senior cabinet posts is “barely 18 months”.

Former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove praised the report for pushing “back hard on the pretentions of those who believe whole areas of public life and decision-making impacting the population should be fenced off and left in the hands of technocrats beyond any political accountability”.