Civil Service Appointments Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Civil Service Appointments

Sara Britcliffe Excerpts
Tuesday 30th June 2020

(3 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Michael Gove Portrait Michael Gove
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I should say that we never had a National Security Adviser under a Labour Government. Some of us might think that we were well or poorly governed at that time, but it seems to me slightly recherché of the Labour party to object to the evolution of a role that it had no part in either creating or advocating.

Sara Britcliffe Portrait Sara Britcliffe (Hyndburn) (Con)
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Can my right hon. Friend outline what steps the Government are taking to attract new talent to the civil service and ensure that we have the right people in the right job and the right location, so that the civil service works for all constituencies, such as Hyndburn and Haslingden?

Michael Gove Portrait Michael Gove
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In the speech to which some hon. Members referred earlier, I made the point that we needed to disperse decision making in the civil service, and one of the locations I suggested we should think about locating more key decision makers was east Lancashire.