Speaking up for Services

Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary has spoken out against the comments that Lord Digby Jones made about the Civil Service.

“Frankly the job could be done with half as many, it could be more productive, more efficient, it could deliver a lot more value for money for the taxpayer.

"I was amazed, quite frankly, at how many people deserved the sack and yet that was the one threat that they never ever worked under, because it doesn't exist."

Mark has branded the words as narrow minded, naïve and insulting showing that Lord Jones has a complete lack of understanding of what the Civil Service does:

"Civil servants are working flat out in Jobcentres across the country to get people back into work, as well as gearing up for tax return deadline day and ensuring the courts system operates smoothly.

"Lord Jones would do well to remember that the driving licence in his wallet and the passport in his pocket are delivered by low paid civil servants who deliver the everyday things we take for granted.

“He must be living on another planet if he thinks these things can be done with half the people. Civil and public servants across the UK will find his comments grossly insulting.

"The civil service has already suffered 80,000 job cuts which has damaged service levels and with more cuts to follow key services will remain at breaking point.

"Rather than making ill informed comments, Lord Jones should remember the billions being wasted on private sector consultants and the billions lost through botched privatisations.”

I would like to add that in addition to the billions wasted on private sector consultants and botched privatisations even more is wasted on inadequate or undeliverable computer systems. Only yesterday the Public Accounts Committee issued a report warning that the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) programme is already 18 months late and at least £182m over budget!

The £7.1bn Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) programme was intended to provide a single information infrastructure serving the army, navy, airforce and central MoD command but the project is now 18 months late and at least £182m over budget, a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report warned today.
If fully implemented the system will support 150,000 terminals and 300,000 users at more than 2,000 sites, as well as troops on operations and Royal Navy ships. The EDS-led Atlas consortium won the contract to design, install and run the DII back in 2005.

As well as problems with software delivery, the PAC blames "totally inadequate research" in assessing the buildings where terminals would be installed - many of which were subsequently found to contain asbestos - for causing delays to the project.

The rollout methodology, proposed by Atlas, was too inflexible to cope with the challenging reality on the ground, according to the PAC.