Why the civil service delivers failure
The article critiques the UK civil service for prioritizing process over results, highlighting a recent initiative by Chief Secretary Darren Jones to create new delivery teams. Critics argue that this approach adds unnecessary bureaucracy without addressing the core issues of inefficiency within the civil service. The piece suggests that civil servants are more focused on policy-making rather than actual implementation, leading to a disconnect between ideas and delivery.
- ▪Darren Jones announced new delivery teams for government departments to improve results.
- ▪Critics have mocked the initiative as adding more bureaucracy without solving existing problems.
- ▪The civil service is seen as prioritizing policy-making over actual delivery, leading to inefficiency.
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Why the civil service delivers failure Whitehall’s lanyard class is far more interested in ‘process’ than results. i Picture by: Getty dataLayer.push({ event: 'author', author: "Ameer Kotecha" }) Ameer Kotecha 21st May 2026 i Picture by: Getty Share Topics Politics UK Want unlimited, ad-free access? Become a spiked supporter. Chief secretary to the UK prime minister, Darren Jones, probably thought he would be commended for getting on with what he and his ilk habitually call ‘the serious business of government’. While most of the Labour Party are engaging in an overexcited bout of fratricide, Jones announced last week that all government departments would be getting a new ‘delivery team’ led by a top civil servant to help them, you guessed it, ‘deliver’.
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