Reid: My head's on the block
Reid: My head's on the block
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Wednesday, 21, Jun 2006 07:54
Home secretary John Reid has told 200 senior civil service managers that they could lose their jobs if matters do not improve in the troubled government department.
The Home Office has failed to recover in the 47 days since John Reid took over from Charles Clarke following the latter's forced resignation after it emerged that over 1,000 foreign prisoners had been released rather than deported.
Further high profile embarrassing stories for Mr Reid since then have included controversy over the sentencing of child sex abusers, the early release of criminals sentenced to life and criticism of Britain's immigration controls.
Responding to sustained attacks from politicians and the media, Mr Reid gathered his civil servant lieutenants and told them that their jobs were on the line as much as his.
He insisted that reform rather than a division of the Home Office into a number of smaller departments was necessary, a choice backed by Guy Lodge of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
"John Reid is right to seek the reform of the Home Office and not its break up," Mr Lodge said.
"The reform he is suggesting has wider application across Whitehall. Ministers should be publicly accountable for policy and resources and civil servants should be accountable for their operational performance and given more space to get on with the job. This would make both ministers and civil servants more genuinely accountable."
Mr Reid's tenure as home secretary has so far been dominated by hard talk about the need for reform in a "system" which is "not fit for purpose".
He has yet to make any firm proposals, however, having given himself 100 days to formulate solutions to the many problems faced by the Home Office.