Cabinet Secretary

The UK's most senior civil servant, Simon Case, has set out the five tests that he uses to measure effectiveness in Whitehall.

He specifically highlighted that there are often risks in failing to act and “in the missed opportunity”. The reality is that every civil servant needs to be better equipped to use data in how they solve problems; and design and deliver public services.” “We are getting better at joining up thinking across departments, professions and functions – but we do need to do more of it, and faster, because the problems we are tackling don’t fit neatly under any one department,” he said. Do we have the workforce we need to meet the challenges of today – and tomorrow? “Because we do need our data experts, the ‘ninjas’ as I call them. Such bravery and leadership continue in the civil service today and I am proud to champion it where it is found. The government chose, Case said, not to be the big-state player of the pandemic era but instead a light-touch digital facilitator to connect together interested parties. He revealed that all civil servants will this year complete at least one day of dedicated data training. - Are we updating the way we do things to stay relevant? As of last week [16-20 January], 99.4% of UK applications did meet the target. In a fast-changing world, are we neither too cautious, nor too reckless? - Are we staying true to our core purpose?