Her final text contained just a single word, but it haunts Jean Hanlon's (pictured) family to this day. 'Help', the message read.
Up next
Author
Tags

Britain’s system of government needs urgent reform as the civil service is ‘too metropolitan, too short-term, too siloed [and] too rivalrous’, according to former cabinet secretary Lord Sedwill.

In a report for the think tank Reform, Lord Sedwill said too many of the structures of Whitehall ‘would be familiar to [William] Gladstone’ and were not capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

In comments seen by the Daily Telegraph, he said: ‘Trying to transform the economy and society through an untransformed governance system is unlikely to prosper.

‘This means systemic reform.’

The report paints a damning picture of Whitehall where officials and ministers are too often preoccupied with internal machinations rather than the challenges facing the country.

The report says the UK's system of government ¿too metropolitan, too short-term, too siloed [and] too rivalrous¿

The report says the UK's system of government ¿too metropolitan, too short-term, too siloed [and] too rivalrous¿

The report says the UK’s system of government ‘too metropolitan, too short-term, too siloed [and] too rivalrous’

Many of the structures that make up Whitehall 'would be familiar' to William Gladstone who served as Britain's prime minister in the 19th century, the report says

Many of the structures that make up Whitehall 'would be familiar' to William Gladstone who served as Britain's prime minister in the 19th century, the report says

Read Related Also: One Direction’s Scooby-Doo inspired tour bus goes up for sale AGAIN for £40K – boasting games consoles, surround sound and monogrammed Bentley seats

Many of the structures that make up Whitehall ‘would be familiar’ to William Gladstone who served as Britain’s prime minister in the 19th century, the report says

Sedwill also called for a fundamental reform government technology use to improve ‘productivity, responsiveness, service levels and precision’.

He said he sometimes felt he had less influence as cabinet secretary than when he ran the Home Office: ‘At the Home Office, I’d sometimes find I’d pulled levers and commissioned work, even if I didn’t know I had, just by casual remarks.

‘[As] cabinet secretary, I could barely find a lever that was connected to anything.’

Other former civil servants and senior officials said in the report that the civil service was risk averse and filled with officials who didn’t want to be held accountable for decisions that could backfire.

One said: ‘Who wants to be held to account?’

Another added: ‘The civil service culture is deeply flawed in many ways . . . What I observe is a culture that is risk-averse, where time is a free good [and] where perfection is the enemy of ”it’s good enough, let’s just go and do something”.’