A Government That Worked Better and Cost Less? : Evaluating Three Decades of Reform and Change in UK Central Government

The UK is said to have been one of the most prolific reformers of its public administration. Successive reforms have been accompanied by claims that the changes would make the world a better place by transforming the way government worked. Despite much discussion and debate over government makeovers and reforms, however, there has been remarkably little systematic evaluation of what happened to cost and performance in UK government during the last thirty years. A Government that Worked Better and Cost Less? aims to address that gap, offering a unique evaluation of UK government modernization programmes from 1980 to the present day. The book provides a distinctive framework for evaluating long-term performance in government, bringing together the 'working better' and 'costing less' dimensions, and presents detailed primary evidence within that framework. This book explores the implications of their findings for widely held ideas about public management, the questions they present, and their policy implications for a period in which pressures to make government 'work better and cost less' are unlikely to go away. UK central government is said to have been one of the most prolific reformers of its public administration over the past few decades, a poster-child of ‘New Public Management’. Successive reforms were accompanied by lofty claims that the changes would transform the way government worked. Government would become more efficient (delivering services more economically, for example by competition or outsourcing) or more effective and user-friendly (more responsive to citizens, for example by clearer performance frameworks, better use of information technology), or both. Despite much debate over government reforms, however, there has been remarkably little systematic evaluation of the cost and performance of UK government over the past thirty years. This book tests the claims of both proponents and detractors of government modernization programmes by carefully compiling and analysing data relating to cost and performance of UK central government over three decades. It shows that, confounding expectations of both sets of commentators, not only did the reform efforts largely fail to cut costs, but the increased spending did not result in greater fairness and consistency in government decisions. This book also shows that, despite the rhetoric of ‘evidence-based policy’, the way in which official records change over time makes such evidence increasingly volatile and hard to evaluate. Its findings pose an important challenge for public management in the 2010s and 2020s, when demands for government to cost less and work better are likely to intensify Cover 1 A Government that Worked Better and Cost Less? 4 Copyright 5 Contents 10 List of Figures and Tables 12 1 Yesterday’s Tomorrows Revisited—the Route to Better and Cheaper Public Services 16 2 The General Background: What Changed and What Didn’t in the UK Central Governance Landscape 35 3 Performance Data Breaks: Breaking the Mould and Burying the Evidence 59 4 Did Government Cost Less? Running Costs and Paybill 80 5 Collecting Taxes: Central and Local Government Taxation Compared 101 6 Consistency and Fairness in Administration: Formal Complaints and Legal Challenges 122 7 Comparative Perspectives on Performance 143 8 Government Processes: More Focused and Business-like or Heading into Chaos? 169 9 Not What it Said on the Tin: Assessing Three Decades of Change 193 Appendix 1 Interviewees and Focus Group Members 214 Appendix 2 Index of Volatility: Classification of Discontinuities for Chapter 3 216 Appendix 3 Dealing with ‘Medium’ Levels of Data Volatility: The Example of Departmental Running Costs 220 Appendix 4 Analysis of Legislative Amendments: Methodology for Chapter 8 224 Selected Bibliography 228 Official Sources Bibliography 234 Index 238 Evaluates Uk Government Modernization Programs From 1980 To The Present. Provides A Framework For Assessing Long-term Performance In Government, Bringing Together The 'working Better' And 'costing Less' Dimensions. Yesterday's Tomorrows Revisited--the Route To Better And Cheaper Public Services -- The General Background : What Changed And What Didn't In The Uk Central Governance Landscape -- Performance Data Breaks : Breaking The Mould And Burying The Evidence -- Did Government Cost Less? : Running Costs And Paybill -- Collecting Taxes : Central And Local Government Taxation Compared -- Consistency And Fairness In Administration : Formal Complaints And Legal Challenges -- Comparative Perspectives On Performance -- Government Processes : More Focused And Business-like Or Heading Into Chaos? -- Not What It Said On The Tin : Assessing Three Decades Of Change. Christopher Hood, Ruth Dixon. Formerly Cip. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 213-218) And Index. Written in an accessible style, this book offers an unparalleled insight into the 'modernization' of UK government from 1980 to the present day, and provides a distinctive framework for evaluating long-term performance in government.