Joe Hill Says Civil Service World Needs New Code — Civil Service World
Joe Hill says civil service world needs a new Code after Sir Olly Robbins told MPs he could recite the 1,336-word Civil Service Code from memory. Hill argues the current document leaves Whitehall with too little positive guidance and too much reliance on what civil servants must not do.
Sir Olly Robbins and MPs
Robbins, the former Permanent Secretary, told MPs two weeks before the article was written that he was confident he acted in line with the Civil Service Code. His departure from government came before the article was written, and Hill treats that exit as another blow to relations between ministers and civil servants.
The code itself is presented as a technical and legalistic statement of restrictions. Hill says it is 1,336 words long and says precious little about what civil servants should do, even though it is also the civil service’s stated values and terms-and-conditions document.
Whitehall’s negative principles
Hill’s argument is that Whitehall organises around negative principles when positive ones are absent. He lists avoiding taking risks, avoiding new ideas, avoiding bringing in people from the outside, avoiding getting rid of people who are not doing their job, and avoiding every elephant in the room as the habits that follow.
The contrast he draws is simple: a code that mainly bans conduct gives officials little guidance on how to act when pressure rises or judgment calls come fast. In his account, that leaves the civil service leaning on caution rather than clarity.
Ministers and civil servants
Hill says the relationship between ministers and civil servants is already damaged, and that better communication is needed on both sides. He places Robbins’ departure inside that wider strain rather than treating it as a standalone personnel change.
He also points to a longer pattern. In 2015, he says he signed a copy of the Civil Service Code on his first day in the civil service, yet still sees a gap between the document’s language and the conduct it is supposed to shape. For readers inside Whitehall, the practical issue is not whether the code exists, but whether it gives enough direction to support high performance instead of encouraging evasion.
