The head of the civil service has joined the row over statistics, calling for official statisticians to be “boring” and leave interpretations to others.

Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell’s comments come after ministers questioned the way the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released recent data on nationality and employment. O’Donnell was speaking yesterday at Civil Service Live Gateshead, which was run by Whitehall & Westminster World’s publisher Dods in association with Visa.

“I want [the ONS] to be boring, to put out the plain facts, and nothing but the facts, and on clear, predictable deadlines,” he said. It would then be for politicians and government press officers to interpret the figures, he added.

The ONS was criticised last month for its decision to separate out data on foreign-born and UK-born workers, which came at the same time as a row over the use of foreign workers in the construction industry.

Appearing with civil service commissioners Janet Paraskeva and Bernard Knight, as well as northern editor of the Guardian Martin Wainwright and South Tyneside Council chief executive Irene Lucas, Sir Gus also gave his view on a recent report by think tank Reform that argued that top civil servants should be appointed by political leaders (see p7).

The cabinet secretary branded the proposition “absolute madness” and described how Number 10 is currently struggling to liaise with the US Treasury department over April’s London G20 meeting. Due to the ongoing handover to the Obama administration, he said, “there is nobody there. You cannot believe how difficult it is.” He also emphasised the need for continuity in major projects such as the Olympics.

Civil servants would not benefit from such a system, he warned: “You get to a certain point, and you can’t go any further. If there’s a change of administration, you’re out, and a whole new bunch of people come in who probably haven’t been in government before.”

Lucas also disapproved of the lack of meritocracy inherent within such a system, and recalled a time when senior positions in local government were the subject of nepotism. “I am delighted those days have gone,” she said.

Knight, a former local authority chief executive, added a warning that it had taken “a lot of effort to get rid of them”.

Reform’s idea got only one vote of support from the 200-strong audience, while Wainwright’s suggestion that civil servants pick their own ministers proved much more popular.

Note

We at Whitehall & Westminster World are disappointed to see so many media outlets taking Sir Gus O’Donnell’s comments out of context. The cabinet secretary did not set out to criticise the Obama administration but instead to demonstrate the strength of the UK’s system of government, following the publication of a report by think tank Reform which advocated the political appointment of senior civil servants. We believe this is clear from the quotes’ context in the article above.

Nonetheless, we are glad to welcome so many new readers to our website, and hope that you will sign up to our news bulletins or subscribe to the newspaper in order to continue enjoying news and analysis on all the issues affecting the civil service.

The Civil Service Live event in Gateshead was a wide-ranging event designed to help improve the delivery of public services; we are confident that, when the flurry of media interest around this news story has died away, the event will have far more positive and long-term impacts on the quality and efficiency of civil servants’ work.

Matt Ross
Editor
Whitehall & Westminster World