Report

A new civil service code

This report from UK think tank Re:State summarises the current Code and then provides a full, new draft Code to replace the existing one.

Criticisms of the Civil Service are a seemingly permanent feature of our politics, with government after government promising to drive ahead with reforms to tackle a Whitehall machine that is too slow, too siloed, too skewed towards generalists, and too closed. Many of these complaints stem from structural defects.

But the challenges are also cultural: risk aversion, process-obsession and bias towards the status quo. Comprehensive Civil Service reform will require more than a revised Civil Service Code, but such a revision is a good place for a reform agenda to start. If drafted with ambitious values and behaviours in mind, a revised Code could set clear cultural expectations that would facilitate broader and overdue Whitehall reforms.

A revision of the Code would send a clear message to the Civil Service and the public that the government expects civil servants to not only act ethically and professionally, obey the law, and embrace objectivity and impartiality, but to also embrace excellence, openness, ownership, and courage.