Civil servants 'incentivised to ignore or neglect' key policy processes within Scottish Government

Civil servants within the Scottish Government are “incentivised” to avoid undertaking key aspects of policy design that could help develop better legislation and approaches, MSPs have been told.

The Fraser of Allander Institute (FAI) told the Scottish Parliament’s finance and public administration committee it was concerned by a “piece-meal approach” at the Government, which is “significantly limiting the effectiveness of decision-making processes”.

The warnings formed part of the FAI’s submission to the committee’s burgeoning inquiry into effective Government decision making following multiple controversies, including the ferry fiasco and the complaints around the development of the Gender Recognition Reform legislation.

The inquiry will examine whether there is sufficient transparency around Government decisions, what good practice is in terms of decision making and whether it is being followed, alongside the quality of recording and reviewing decision-making within Government.

The Scottish Government's decision-making processes have been criticised by high profile organisations.

The FAI’s submission pointed at evidence of good processes in place such as requiring ‘business sases’ and risk assessments, designed to highlight risks and the impact of policies.

However, the institute warned they were not always being followed and often did not aid policy-making, with civil servants “incentivised” to ignore them.

They stated: “Our research found that these processes appear to be often insufficient. Business cases were performed to the minimum standard or missing entirely. Impact assessments were taking place at the end of policy development, so they could not affect the policy direction, missing their intention entirely.

“And a lack of governance and oversight alongside a culture of rushing policy development resulted in a decision-making environment that appears easy to circumvent and incentivises civil servants to ignore or neglect these fundamental processes.”

Accusing the Government of a “piecemeal approach” to key processes, the FAI said this led Government “significantly limiting the effectiveness of decision-making processes”, adding “a lack of resourcing allocated to these projects creates a poor set of incentives to undertake decision-making processes as intended”.

They added: “Incentives for robust decision-making processes were poor as there appeared to be a culture that prioritised ‘getting money out the door’ rather than identifying whether the spending was likely to produce value for money.

“Where challenge does occur, it occurs in bulk towards the end of policy development. We have heard that this challenge was primarily interested in the financial feasibility of funding policies and not in whether the policy has been well-developed, whether processes have been followed as intended, whether objectives other than spending money have been set, or even what the expected impacts of the policy are.

"Throughout our project, we could not even ascertain who exactly was responsible for examining the expected impacts and quality of processes, leaving us to conclude that a gap in responsibility may exist.”

The FAI also suggested the pro-active release of Cabinet papers, something only done 15 years after they are compiled in Scotland, to aid with transparency and accountability.

Audit Scotland, which has delivered some of the most stinging criticism of the Government’s record keeping and decision making, also raised examples it had covered in its submission to the inquiry.

The body stated while there was evidence of a focus on individual responsibility and accountability, principles such as those in the Christie Review had been all but abandoned.

The submission from Audit Scotland states: “Through our audits, we have found that the principles established by Christie are often lost in practice.

"In reflecting on the ten-year anniversary of Christie, the Auditor General highlighted a major implementation gap between policy ambitions and delivery on the ground and a need to rethink radically how we measure success and hold organisations to account for their performance.”

The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.

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