Keir Starmer’s chief secretary, Darren Jones, has announced plans to overhaul Whitehall by sacking underperforming civil servants and introducing risk-taking taskforces. In a speech at the What3Words tech company in west London, Jones said civil servants should feel “jeopardy” if they fail to deliver, noting that only seven out of 7,000 senior officials are currently on improvement plans.
Jones outlined a “rewiring” of Whitehall, where big bonuses will be reserved for exceptional achievement and key performance indicators will be set by ministers. “Instead of the sideways shimmy to another team or department if you fail to perform, I’m afraid you will be sacked,” he said, adding that “the doers, not the talkers” would be promoted.
The plans include small taskforces to tackle specific problems, with cabinet ministers bidding for extra help. These units will follow the “two pizza” test, a startup theory that teams should be small enough to share two pizzas. Jones highlighted childcare policy and driving tests as areas needing improvement, but said specific problems are yet to be confirmed.
Jones acknowledged previous failed attempts to reform Whitehall, but argued this time would be different by injecting competition and improving public service experiences. He cited an HMRC pilot where a 40-step process was reduced to two approval layers as an example of stripping out unnecessary checks.
FDA union general secretary Dave Penman questioned whether civil servants would feel safe taking risks. Jones said he was comfortable with greater risk-taking to boost productivity. Prospect union general secretary Mike Clancy noted that many “doers” already exist in government but are underpaid and undervalued, urging pay reform to retain specialists.
