Civil Service Reform

Debate between Rory Stewart and Lord Maude of Horsham

Tuesday 19th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

We have set up a mutuals information service so that we can provide ready access to information. We have also set up a small fund that can buy legal and commercial advice for groups of public sector workers who want to establish themselves as mutuals. That is beginning to succeed, but what is needed above all is for the managers in such public sector organisations to support those who want to spin themselves out as public service mutuals. There is a tendency for managers to feel that that is somehow a threat and to resist it, but they should see it as a big opportunity, for all the reasons that my hon. Friend has so eloquently cited.

[Rory Stewart (Penrith and The Border) (Con)]

The 2001 reforms of the Foreign Office led to a torrent of management jargon, and to officials managing themselves instead of getting to grips with foreign countries. Will the Minister reassure us that this round of reforms will not promote people on the basis of abstract management skills at the expense of the energy, imagination, practical wisdom and courage which are at the heart of good administration?

[Mr Maude]

If it were possible for us to encapsulate the spirit and the culture that we want to see in the civil service in a few phrases, my hon. Friend would just have done so.