Civil service chief's business aims

Is a new prime minister's department emerging?

The man set to take over as the UK's top civil servant has underlined his determination to get more business people into government.

Sir Andrew Turnbull, who takes over as cabinet secretary in September, said progress has already been made on bringing outsiders into the upper echelons of the civil service.

We are focusing on outcomes and rewarding people for delivery

Sir Andrew Turnbull
New cabinet secretary

Sir Andrew also set out how he intended to beef up the Cabinet Office so it could focus on the government's "reform and delivery" programme.

The moves will be seen as part of the process of setting up a prime minister's department in all but name.

Key priorities

In last month's reshuffle, Mr Blair made the Cabinet Office directly accountable to him for the first time and it is headed by Lord Macdonald of Tradeston, one of his key allies.

Now Sir Andrew, who will replace Sir Richard Wilson, has mapped out the new structure he wants to put in place for the department.

The department will focus on four key areas:

• Supporting the prime minister in leading the government
• Supporting the government in its business
• Leading and supporting the reform and delivery programme
• Co-ordinating security and intelligence

Mr Blair last week made Sir David Omand the first security and intelligence co-ordinator, as well as permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office.

Sir Richard Wilson retires in September as cabinet secretary

That was viewed by many observers as a mirror image of the director of homeland security post in George Bush's US administration.

Civil service reform would be another key priority, said Sir Andrew.

"The civil service is already changing as a result of Sir Richard Wilson's reform programme," he said.

"He is handing over to me a civil service in which we are bringing in far more talented people at all levels at all levels in the service with skills and expertise which we do not have ourselves."

Appetite for change

Sir Andrew said the government was "on track" to make the senior civil service more diverse.

"We are focusing on outcomes and rewarding people for delivery," he continued.

"As a result, our performance is improving and there are exciting developments in the way we deliver services ourselves and through our partners.

"But we know that we need to take these changes further and have an appetite to do so.

"I believe that the changes I have outlined today will achieve the improvements we seek."