Covid-19 has shown how detached Policy-making is from realities on the ground, challenges posed for operational delivery, differences in the regions ignored by the one size fits all policies developed in Whitehall. Priorities of policy-making reflect the London-centric nature of Government with all the lobbying power of wealth and patronage, the speedy awarding of Covid contracts to friends of Government, the emphasis on prosecuting the poor for benefit fraud rather than the rich tax dodgers, etc.
Recommendations:
Move policy-making out to the regions. It no longer needs to be incurring the high cost of London bases. This may also encourage the Ministers out into the regions increasing openness and accountability of Government.
Make full use of the latest technology (Zoom and MS Teams amongst others) to create effective links with relevant stake holders for feedback loops and proper communication channels.
Target policy fairly – for every instrument introduced to tackle benefit fraud there should be an instrument created to tackle tax dodging. Equal resources should be put in place to investigate tax dodgers and money launderers as for the benefit fraud investigations.
Allow more openness to bring in stakeholders/operational delivery partners into the picture early in the development of policy.
Ensure Procurement bodies are well enough resourced and trained to ensure fair and robust procurement of Government contracts that do not just opt for the cheapest bidders but ensure the bids selected are fit for purpose.
Separate policy-making from the short-term vote winning requirements of the Government of the day – cross party support for the policy should be an essential requirement no matter how big the Government majority of the day. Maybe, to achieve this, the Cabinet should be comprised of the best, most gifted MPs from across the parties rather than awarded to the cronies who provided the most support to the Prime Minister. Although vilified by the press, I had much more confidence in the joint Government between the Conservatives and LibDems than I had in any of the following Governments. Even for contests such as this, the judges should be drawn from across the political spectrum to ensure the winners are not just those “liked” by the current Government.
Change legislation to ensure communication between Government departments. The current splitting of the Civil Service into different bodies all competing for limited funds and the DPA Act has made it so difficult that there is little communication between different departments. Users of Government services should have it made clear to them that information they provide will be shared between departments to ensure the best outcomes for them as individuals and for society. This should be an automatic requirement now enabled by modern machine learning algorithms to combat tax and benefit fraud.
Most of all, policy-makers should be required to work on the front line of operational delivery of their policy areas for six months every five years or so, preferably in the regions, to experience first-hand the realities on the ground, the glitches, the difficulties posed by unworkable, ill-thought policies and the differing needs of the regions to enable more flexible, rapid policy development targeted at priority areas of each region.
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