At the Centre of Whitehall : advising the Prime Minister and the cabinet

## Preface The machinery at the heart of British government is gradually being demystified. This book is part of that process of revelation. It takes its origin from two sources: George Jones's long-standing work on 10 Downing Street-the Prime Minister's private office-and Michael Lee's draft chapters on the Cabinet Office, which he abandoned in 1980 when he felt the restrictions placed on what he might write did not allow the standard of scholarship he wished to maintain. Both authors have been supported in their research by June Burnham, who assisted them when they were invited in 1990 to submit separate papers for a conference organized by Dr David Hine. June Burnham took charge of the construction of a book based on this conference material. Without her it would never have been completed. She is the principal author of Chapters 11 and 12 which cover those parts of the centre not tied directly to No. 10 or to the Cabinet Office. The authors would like to thank all those who helped them in the collection of material. They were freely able to talk to civil servants involved in these matters, who were open and helpful within proper boundaries. We are grateful to them for their kindness. Vlll management of his administration used to derive from his role as First Lord of the Treasury. The government had in the past used public appointments and public money to bolster its position in office. To think of the Prime Minister's Office and the Cabinet Office as the centre is to move away from a model of Treasury influence and to emphasize the management of agenda rather than the disbursement of funds. At another level of interpretation the present juxtaposition of traditional nomenclature and modern agenda is part of the carefully cultivated flexibility that surrounds the nexus of relationships within the specific geographical setting of lO Downing Street and 70 Whitehall. Until the refurbishment of No. I 0 between 1961 and 1963 there was no obvious physical location for the centre of the machine, apart from the New Public Offices under which lay the war rooms of the Churchill coalition. Today certain buildings seem to constitute a 'nerve centre' of power and influence: lO Downing Street, the Cabinet Office, the Privy Council Office and other offices for ministers and officials around 68 and 70 Whitehall, and 12 Downing Street which houses the Chief Whip's Office. Overflows can be found nearby in the New Public Offices and the New Admiralty Building. The erection of security gates across Downing Street in 1989 drew attention to the special importance of this site. The IRA mortar bomb attack in 1991 underlined its vulnerability. The street has become a kind of open-air television studio for photo-opportunities and official statements. Many commentators, looking at this shift away from the Treasury as the centre of government, ask why the provisions still fall short of a 'Prime Minister's Department'. Some think such a department exists in all but name. 2 Those who advocate its creation think the agenda of politics demand it. 3 Others believe the creation of a prime minister's department incorporating the Cabinet Office would signal the end of collective cabinet government, and lead to a bureaucratization or formalization of relationships that would reduce their flexibility and their capacity to adapt to different prime ministers and different circumstances. 4 Though protagonists of a prime minister's department identified a weakness at the centre, a common view during Mrs Thatcher's premiership was that she had been able to intervene where she wanted. She was said to have been able to control decision-making, not only by force of personality, 'the determination to be at the centre of things', but also through 'exercising influence' over departments, through No. 10, especially its press secretary and policy unit, and through the Cabinet Office. 5 When the 'hole in the middle' and proposals for a prime minister's department were being widely discussed in Westminster and Whitehall in the early 1990s, The Economist judged Deregulation Unit Clerk to the Privy Council parliament 1.2 I) 'Cabinet secretariat' [servicing Cabinet] ... 'including some interdepartmental co-ordination'. 2) 'Machinery of government' [its design and modification]. 3) 'Responsibility for the civil service'. 4) 'Central work on departments' organisation, management and senior appointments'. 5) Coordination of 'departments' objectives, expenditure, and civil service manpower'. 6) Management of the 'national economy, finance, taxation'. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-14 Shaping the Centre....Pages 15-26 Front Matter....Pages 27-27 The Prime Minister’s Office: The Overall Picture....Pages 29-40 The Private Office....Pages 41-68 The Press Office....Pages 69-83 The Political Office....Pages 84-99 The Policy Unit and Other Policy Advisers....Pages 100-130 Front Matter....Pages 131-131 The Administrative Setting of Cabinet Responsibilities....Pages 133-153 Servicing Cabinet and its Committees....Pages 154-185 Inquiry and Analysis....Pages 186-205 The ‘Sinecure’ Ministers....Pages 206-230 Organizing and Managing the Civil Service....Pages 231-247 Conclusion....Pages 248-261 Back Matter....Pages 262-299

This authoritative text examines the arrangements at the centre of Whitehall for advising the British prime minister and Cabinet, especially during the Thatcher and Major governments. The traditional coordinating centre has shifted from the Treasury to the Prime Minister's Office and the Chief Whip's Office in Downing Street, and to the Cabinet Office in Whitehall. Exploration of the separate but interlinking contributions made by these three parts of the centre shows they form a flexible but not entirely adequate support for modern government.