MPs call for urgent reform of Government culture to make the UK ‘fit for future’
The House of Commons Liaison Committee has released a report calling for changes in Whitehall.
A Government committee has called for an “urgent reform” of Government culture to improve strategic decision making and make UK “fit for the future”.
The House of Commons Liaison Committee, made up of MPs who chair Commons select committees, has released a report detailing how the Government can improve strategic thinking and future-proof decision making for generations to come.
The report said the Government should develop a physical campus for a “National School for Government and Public Services”.
The committee said having a physical campus would create “a ‘network effect’ of civil servants across departments, enabling more effective collaboration in future”.
This would “embed cultural change in Whitehall” and develop a shared culture of strategic thinking and break the cycle of short-term thinking.
The committee heard evidence that younger generations are becoming “detached from democracy” and are more open to authoritarianism, with the failure to address long-term issues like housing and climate change leading to a disengagement with the political system.
Liaison Committee chairman Sir Bernard Jenkin said: “Getting Parliament and government to be more strategic than they have been over the past 20 or 30 years is vital to restoring public confidence in our entire democratic system, particularly among younger generations who will inherit the consequences of what governments do now.
“The next government should seize this offer from Parliament to support and scrutinise strategic thinking for the future.”
The report outlined that the next government should set out its national strategy to Parliament annually and define five or six “key strategic priorities” which would be monitored and subject to an annual report to Parliament.
The committee also recommended creating a new select committee called the Committee For The Future with a specific focus on future generations which would hold ministers and officials to account for the Government’s national strategy.
