CHISHOLM ON... WHETHER THE GREENSILL SCANDAL HAS DENTED PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN THE CIVIL SERVICE

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say I actually think that it won’t have damaged confidence in the civil service. The view the public has of the civil service is based on millions of interactions every day: in benefits offices, in dealing with the tax authorities, and the experience of people working in education, health, and throughout the public service. From those interactions, the public actually have a lot of trust and confidence in civil servants... I think that with this sense that fellow citizens have had to rely on civil servants to act with amazing courage and commitment through the pandemic, we’ll probably have added to that rather than taking anything away.

“Although Greensill has provided some alarming headlines, I think the focus will tend to move onto corporate governance standards and regulation rather than what it tells you about the civil service – which isn’t very much, because the reality is that 99% of civil servants wouldn’t recognise this picture of lobbying, second jobbing and the other things that are alleged because that’s just no part of their world. So I think it’s a distraction.

“It also shows that there are some lessons that can be learned, I think, about public appointments and about management of conflicts of interest.

I’m sure we will learn them when we get the report from Nigel Boardman. And it also probably tells us some things about the value of supply chain finance, but I don’t think it will make a big difference to the civil service and our reputation.”