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The UK’s system of government does not allow new policies to be implemented quickly nor to be managed effectively and efficiently.

The outcome is that few departments deliver an adequate level of service. They also provide poor value for money for taxpayers with public sector productivity so low: between 1997 and 2019, it increased by just 3.7% compared to 24.1% for the service side of the private sector.

The UK is also the most over-centralised developed democracy in the world. Too much is done too far from communities, adding to popular disenchantment with politics. It overloads Ministers and Senior Civil Servants with detailed decisions which should be made at a local level and it makes government remote from the people.

This is exacerbated by a mismatch of the skill and experience of Ministers and Senior Civil Servants to the requirements of their roles.

The blame lies not with politicians or senior civil servants but with the system of government, which has given both of them impossible jobs. The system has hardly changed since the Northcote-Trevelyan Report of 1853, whereas the role of government is significantly different.

The public recognises this. 54% of those with an opinion agreed with the statement “The management of public services (e.g. schools, hospitals) does not improve regardless of which party is in power.”

Political parties have different views on the role of government and policies but it is our duty to provoke a national debate on how we secure an effective and efficient system of government that will benefit all.

I believe it is now imperative that a more effective system of governance is devised and implemented.