The coalition government published a plan for reforming the civil service. It said that the civil service would in future have a more innovative and less hierarchical culture, with a much sharper focus on outcomes rather than processes, and would be more flexible and corporate. The plan would help to deliver clearer accountability, more digital services, and better management information. It would also ensure that policy and implementation were 'seamlessly linked'.

Source: The Civil Service Reform Plan, Cabinet Office

Links: Plan | Hansard | Cabinet Office press release | IOG press release | PCS press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Public Finance report | Telegraph report (1) | Telegraph report (2)

Date: 2012-Jun

A report by a committee of MPs raised 'substantial concerns' over whether the coalition government would be able to save the £2.6 billion that it had claimed could be found by reducing the number of quangos and other public bodies. The government's savings target was based on incomplete and imprecise estimates of the costs incurred in axing the 262 bodies.

Source: Reorganising Central Government Bodies, Seventy-seventh Report (Session 2010-12), HC 1802, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO

Links: Report | BBC report | Public Finance report | Telegraph report

Date: 2012-Apr

A report examined what was needed for effective relations between government departments and arm's-length bodies ('quangos'). It said that departments should adopt a 'dynamic differentiated' approach to managing their portfolio of quangos, based on both the required degree of independence and the 'risk' the quango posed to departmental/government objectives. There should be a more transparent framework of public accountability for larger quangos by upgrading business plans and presenting them to Parliament.

Source: Jill Rutter, Rosa Malley, Amy Noonan, and William Knighton, It Takes Two: How to create effective relationships between government and arm s-length bodies, Institute for Government 

Links: Report | Summary

Date: 2012-Mar

A report examined the future role of arms-length bodies (or 'quangos') in public service delivery. It said that quangos could play an important role in public service delivery: but there was a clear need for continuing reform of quangos, and a concern about their democratic accountability.

Source: Laurie Thraves, The Future of Arm's Length Bodies, Local Government Information Unit

Links: Report

Date: 2012-Mar

A report by a committee of MPs said that it welcomed the coalition government's announcement that in the spring of 2012 it would publish an outline programme setting out priority areas for cross-Civil Service reform.

Source: Change in Government: The Agenda for Leadership – Further Report, with the government responses to the Committee s Eleventh, Thirteenth and Fifteenth Reports, Eighteenth Report (Session 2010-12), HC 1746, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO

Links: Report

Notes: MPs report (September 2011)

Date: 2012-Jan

An audit report said that the coalition government did not have a 'good enough grasp' of the costs of its plans to abolish more than 260 public sector bodies. The transition costs could be as high as £830 million – almost double the original estimate of £425 million.

Source: Reorganising Central Government Bodies, HC 1703 (Session 2010-2012), National Audit Office, TSO

Links: Report | NAO press release | Labour Party press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Public Finance report

Date: 2012-Jan