Worked Better and Cost Less Christopher Hood Visiting Professor, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

‘Reflections on “A Government that Worked Better and Cost Less”’

Christopher Hood Visiting Professor, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, UK 26 April 2017 www.christopherhood.net/

NAPA Brownlow prize 2015 PSA Mackenzie prize 2016

30 Years of UK Government Reforms

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‘Progressive-era Public Administration’ ‘New Public Management’ Public sector Distinctiveness vs similarity Rules vs Discretion Uniform/inclusive public service Loosely defined provision Public sector ethos/career Policy etc skills Implicit/qualitative performance standards Process controls Unbundled public service Contracts/ marketization ‘Private sector’ style Hands-on management Explicit performance standards Output/ outcome controls Source: Martin Lodge and Derek Gill ‘Toward a New Era of Administrative Reform?’ Governance 24 2011, p.144

Two Aspects of ‘Good Administration’

• Fair, careful, consistent, honest framing & handling of

rules & cases Example: ‘Laws should not be anything but uniform and steadfast.’ (Han Fei Tzu.)

• High-impact, low-cost government through cost-cutting

management Example: ‘Thrift should be the guiding principle in our government expenditure.’ (Mao Tse-tung.) What is or should be the relationship between these two values? Can you have both at once?

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Inconsistency and Unfairness Administrative Cost Administrative Cost and Fairness/Consistency: The ‘No Free Lunch’ View

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Inconsistency and Unfairness Administrative Cost Administrative Cost and Fairness/Consistency: The ‘Having it All’ View

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Inconsistency and Unfairness Administrative Cost Administrative Cost and Fairness/Consistency: The ‘No Systematic Relationship’ View

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WORKED BETTER? Change in incidence of claims about inequity, unfairness, inconsistency, etc. Change in the ‘success’ rate (or strictly survival rate) of those claims Complaints to

• mbudsmen

Grew sharply despite efforts to develop other channels Formal survival rate fell but numbers of survivals grew Judicial review General JR applications doubled 1980s/1990s, immigration cases grew throughout the period Formal survival rate fell but numbers of survivals grew COST LESS? Change in absolute (constant- price) costs Change in relative costs Central government administration costs Grew markedly over the period as a whole Decreased relative to TME, as TME doubled over the period Civil service staff costs Cost about the same, with fluctuations Decreased relative both to TME and UK average earnings numbers

What We Found: Did UK Government End up Working Better and Costing Less between 1980 and 2010?

2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000

1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Judicial Review Applications (England and Wales)

All other causes Immigration

Worked Better? UK PCA Complaints and Judicial Review Applications in England and Wales

10 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000

1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Complaints received by Parliamentary Ombudsman via MPs

All other causes

Data from PHSO Annual Reports and Judicial Statistics

Survival Rates of UK PCA Complaints and England and Wales Judicial Review Applications (First-stage Filter)

11 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 Percentage

Cases Granted Permission to Apply for Judicial Review

All Cases Immigration Other 10 20 30 40 50 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 Percentage

Complaints to Parliamentary Ombudsman proceeding to Statutory Investigation

Cost-Less? Real-terms Running Costs of UK Civil Departments

Calculated from data in Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 1986-2010 Figures are corrected for inflation by means of the GDP deflator, 2012-13 values.

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Comparison of (English) Local and UK Central Government Gross Administrative Expenditure Relative to 1980-81

50 100 150 200 250 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Spending relative to 1980-81 (real terms) Local Government Central Government

Blair Thatcher Major

Source of LG data: Local Government Financial Statistics Figures are corrected for inflation by means of the GDP deflator, 2012-13 values.

Gross and Net Running Costs Relative to ‘TME’

TME = Total Managed Expenditure (total government spending including social benefits, debt interest, and capital and current expenditure on services)

Where Did the Running-Costs Money Go? Real-Terms Civil Service Staff Costs

TME = Total Managed Expenditure

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% 180%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 1980 1990 2000 2010

Per capita staff costs relative to UK workforce

Staff Costs Relative to TME Staff Costs relative to TME Per capita cost/ average UK earnings

Relative Civil Service Staff Costs