The Conservatives have confirmed that they will abolish the public service agreement (PSA) system.

A third instalment to the party’s manifesto, published yesterday, also promises a ban on departments spending any money on lobbyists and a reduction in the number of special advisers.

On performance management, ‘Ethics and Accountability’ promises to “make it easier to reward the best civil servants and remove the least effective”.

Shadow cabinet minister Francis Maude has already outlined a number of measures to achieve this, such as placing permanent secretaries on fixed-term contracts, allowing ministers and department boards to recommend that they be sacked, and introducing a more rigorous appraisal system throughout the civil service.

The Tory manifesto also pledges to reform the civil service’s redundancy compensation scheme “to bring it more into line with practice in the private sector”.

Although the Cabinet Office has already announced changes to the redundancy scheme – agreed with smaller unions, but resulting in a strike threat from the larger Public and Commercial Services Union (see p1) – a Conservative source said the reforms did not go far enough.

The two-page manifesto is slim on detail, but does say that “Labour’s failed PSA target regime” will be scrapped, with accountability to be managed though the departmental business plans and beefed-up departmental boards that Maude has previously outlined.

Tory leader David Cameron, in a speech made on Monday, also suggested that select committees could be given the power to prevent budget increases for quangos.

The document promises to “end the politicisation of the civil service” with “limits on the number of so-called ‘special advisers’,” and a commitment to protect the impartiality of the civil service. “Ministers will listen to civil service advice, even when they decide not to follow it,” it says.

So far, the Tories have not put a figure on their promise to reduce the numbers of spads, but they have confirmed that there will be a reduction from the 60-odd currently employed by the government.

A spokesman said the commitment to impartiality not only means getting the civil service code on a legal footing, but also an end to the use of civil servants for party political purposes (see news, opposite, col 3).

Writing on the Guardian’s website on Monday, Maude said: “The values of political impartiality, advancement on merit and the public service ethos should be as cherished and nurtured today as ever. But the service has taken a beating over the past 12 years.”