Ex-tory minister to review ‘efficiency’ of Cabinet Office

ONE of the Tory big beasts of the Cameron era has been brought back to Westminster by Dominic Cummings to conduct a review of the Cabinet Office’s “effectiveness”.

Francis Maude, who served as minister for the Cabinet Office under David Cameron, will conduct what the department has described as “a short review” on how to improve the way government “functions” and to also address “spending”.

It is understood that Lord Maude of Horsham was asked by Michael Gove to oversee the department’s performance and its working relations with other departments in Whitehall.

The move comes amid Sir Mark Sedwill’s looming departure as permanent secretary, while in June Mr Cummings reportedly detailed the shortcomings of the “incoherent” Cabinet Office in a briefing with government aides.

The Government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic led Boris Johnson to recently say that “parts of government” had responded “sluggishly”.

Mr Gove previously spoke positively about a Whitehall shake-up, having said: “If this government is to reform so much, it must also reform itself.”

Alex Thomas, programme director at the Institute for Government think tank and former civil servant, previously told The Telegraph that there was “frustration of those at the centre in Number 10 over how well their support structure is set up”, along with the “levers they have got through the Cabinet Office to drive delivery and actually make things happen in the real world”.

A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said: “Lord Maude is conducting a short review on how to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of government functions and spending.”

The role will be unpaid. Lord Maude will work with Alex Chisholm, permanent secretary of the Cabinet Office, and Theodore Agnew, the department’s junior minister.

‘Lord Maude is conducting a short review on how to increase the effectiveness of government functions’