The collapse of public sector productivity in the UK is a national disaster. Productivity was down 8.4% on 2019 levels. It was down by an alarming 18.5% in the Health Service, which has received large increases in funding over the last five years. It is still not back up to 2019 levels.Government has expanded the public sector whilst allowing this collapse. This has resulted in record levels of taxation and huge deficits leading to big increases in borrowing. It is a simple case of poor public sector management.
There is no shortage of managers, as there has been a rapid expansion in their numbers to preside over and help cause the productivity drop. Their salaries and pension plans are much better than in the last century. Some of the worst managed parts of the public sector have been misled by people on more than £500,000 a year. Take the case of HS2. The job of CEO is to spend public money on building a new nationalised rail line to time and budget. There is no need to manage passengers and collect revenues, just spend well.
The result has been mega salaries and bonus for overrunning time and budget massively. Or take the case of the Post Office. CEOs paid more than £500,000 pay and bonus. They presided over losses running up to £1800 m. Worse still they falsely accused service managers of fraud and theft, leaving taxpayers with a huge compensation bill and some of their staff gravely damaged.
When I was a Minister I used natural wastage to slim the organisation. It worked better with fewer.
Old initiatives rarely die in the public sector, they just get shifted to a less prominent location. The culture of collective judgement and responsibility leads to overmanning and frequent changes of leadership on projects and activities. It creates inefficiencies and ensures no one is to blame if it goes wrong. When activities are contracted out there are quite often savings of 10-20% despite the need for the private sector to make a profit.
We’re not buying it.
The MOD is bad at buying things though weapons procurement is a major part of the budget. The Ajax military vehicle should not have posed big problems as it relied on conventional technology. Yet £3bn into the programme only a few vehicles had been delivered and there were quality and design issues that needed sorting out. How come so many intelligent and well paid procurement managers allowed that? Why was no one in charge who could create a good outcome? When government wants something new to happen it is often best to set up a new task force led by an outsider.
The development of covid vaccines was based on just this model. It does not always work as it needs a good leader with Ministerial backing. The construction of the Nightingale hospitals needed Ministerial and military assistance and leadership. The NHS then did not make use of them, preferring to close down non covid activity to keep covid cases in general hospitals. Why? The idea of specialist covid places was a good one to contain infection
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November 16, 2025
The NHS is a disgrace. I volunteer and there are 240 of us doing non medical work. Staffing cafes buggy transport, patient feeding etc.
One thing obvious is the sheer number of people walking about carrying files or pushing trolleys full of equipment. At anyone time dozens of staff are huddled in groups having staff meetings etc.
To my untrained eye, I would estimate at least a third of staff are totally unproductive and could be sacked.
November 16, 2025
I have, over my sixty odd years had three different conditions for which I needed to go to casualty all serious abdominal pains, all three were misdiagnosed the first one three times. With the first two the misdiagnosis could very easily have killed me but all were resolved eventually with standard operations but only after the fourth and second attendances.
So even after the delays in ambulances and waiting rooms they still often get it wrong due to lack of scanning facility or other negligence.
One chap I know of rang 111 was told it was prob. a heart attack but no ambulances so get someone or a taxi to casualty asap. At casualty he was kept waiting for 5+ hours. Eventually a passing doctor spotted him in Casualty waiting and from the way he was sitting decided it was indeed prob. a heart attack and finally got him to some attention! Some six hours after 111 had already thought this likely!
Look at the many Maternity scandals and the poor Lucy Letby whose 15 convictions are clearly totally unsafe yet not even granted an appeal. Our court system is dire too.
November 16, 2025
Chumps are in charge.
November 16, 2025
People who also have no interest or incentives to make it more efficient. Indeed as patient do not pay at the time of treatment the NHS actually have an incentive to deter them from coming at all they are a net cost to the NHS. Deterrent such as we long waiting times, GP deterrent queueing systems, long waiting lists, other hoops to jump through!
November 16, 2025
Ian
Whilst I tend to agree that administration and management are in most cases awful, I have found the very front line staff to be usually good.
Certainly in an emergency situation/admission it seems to work reasonably well, but Treatment is usually let down with poor or non existent after care.
Our Family members have used the NHS on two occasions recently, Prostate cancer treatment, and an emergency appendix removal, on both occasions treatment was excellent.
Prostate treatment was under the Cancer rapid pathway system, the emergency appendix removal from diagnosis to operation was 18 hours.
In both cases interaction patient – staff was excellent, and as you would expect from the medical professionals.
November 16, 2025
Whilst my comment above suggests good management, that is not the case with debilitating illnesses, where waiting times are lengthy, and appointments which should flow from one department to another, can be very time consuming, leading to multiple visits, or simply the failure of departments to communicate with each other, or the patient at all, until chased up.
Then we have the post code lottery of treatment, where one hospital will act on test results, and another will suggest you are within safe/normal limits (with exactly the same test results).
I did ask my own GP about this, and he suggested (only suggested) it perhaps depended upon each hospital’s waiting list, thus you do not even get on list for treatment if the waiting lists are already lengthy, until you become more ill (so perhaps an element of fiddling the actual figures going back to Government perhaps)
Agree with you about endless people wandering about, seems very inefficient but then I guess Hospital layout and poor management systems could be to blame in part.
I am a firm believer that you do not leave your health treatment to chance, you chase up all appointments yourself.
November 16, 2025
It is my experience that in any situation where one ends up speaking or dealing with an expert (law, medical, accountancy etc) one is so pleased t have someone calmly and rationally explain the options and potential outcomes that the previous waits and poor service is forgotten.
Trained staff should be able to solve your problems. It is no reason to beatify the service.
November 17, 2025
NS
Not trying to beatify the service at all, just my description of the last two hospitalisations of family members. As I outlined originally, I do think the Administration and management is very poor, again from past experience.
Can only speak as I find.
November 16, 2025
Plus the NHS happily jabbed net harm Covid “Vaccines” even into children, pregnant women and people who had already had Covid who did not need them even had they been “safe and effective”. Now the government are actively hiding the stats, on the vast damage that was done. See the recent freedom of information appeal the excellent Dr Clare Craig substack gives a good analysis.
Another MRNA trial recently stopped as it seemed to be making infections rates higher not lower see Dr John Campbell video.
November 16, 2025
Have you read THE NEEDLE’S SECRET: UNRAVELING THE MYSTERY OF VACCINE HARM, AND THE BOLUS THEORY REVOLUTION Paperback – 22 Mar. 2024 by MARC GIRARDOT
It’s a must read.
November 16, 2025
No I have not. I will tale a look, my view in general is some vaccines do net good and other do huge net harm. The Covid “vaccines” are certainly in the net harm camp (how could they not be for the many given them who were not even at risk?) This is why in the dire UK authorities are trying to hide the death and illness stats. broken down by vaccines status.
But we know already, from other more honest countries, the appalling scandal will all come out.
November 16, 2025
These ‘staff meetings’ are actually called ‘huddles’ in the NHS.
‘As I said in the Huddle ….’
The lack of formality and record is part of the mindless mess that ensues.
November 16, 2025
@Ian Wragg – well think about it the DEI has to preen itself on its political stance of discrimination, that takes a lot of manpower and its ultimate management Parliament doesn’t care one iota.
It has morphed into a discrimination industry not a clinical outcome industry.
Think about it, how many private organisations really on volunteers to help it political out-pouring
November 16, 2025
Walking all day, up and down a corridor with a file is indeed a fine art …..and often requires plenty of overtime ….only second to network meetings
November 16, 2025
So the BBC say they have insurance to cover libel claims. What are the limits on this and the premium I wonder. Does it cover deliberate libels?
I wonder over say the past 20 years how much they have spent on premiums and got back on claims? It seems likely they will have wasted on hell of a lot on this insurance as why otherwise would the insurers keep offering cover. Insurance is almost always a losing bet. Due to IPT tax, insurance company profits and over heads and fraudulent claims. If you are honest you pick up all these bills. Plus you have all the hassle of arranging it an claiming. The insurance comps. also have good information on what to cover and what to exclude.
The BBC should surely be self insuring and just not be deliberating pushing blatant lies!
November 16, 2025
Lifelogic
Agree, would be surprised if insurance would cover the alleged deliberate manipulation of facts.
November 16, 2025
Indeed. And I rather doubt if the subcontracted production company will have many $ billions lying around to pay over to Trump! Then we have the Newsnight incident too.
The BBC attitude seems to be rather like a bent Cop saying “Well I never fitted anyone up who did not deserve it!”
They seem to be in total denial. Simon Heffer in the Telegraph says the BBC staff need unconscious bias training. They certainly do on Trump, Brexit, Farage, Reform, the net harm vaccines, climate alarmism, landlords, renewables, the size of the state, deluded magic money tree economics, endless demands for ever more red tape…
November 16, 2025
They might end up with another legal action with the insurance company as well as Trump perhaps.
November 16, 2025
Excellent article on TCW today listing the eccentricity of the BBC.
It’s done net harm, no question of that.
Like Mandleson it’s been literally and unashamedly pissing on Britain in plain sight.
November 16, 2025
+1 especially on Climate, Brexit, woke lunacy…
Se the David Starkey “BBC pomposity is beyond belief” video!
November 16, 2025
@Lifelogic – In the DT, presumably a Labour Party PR release -‘Sir Keir Starmer is expected to tell Donald Trump that the BBC must “get its house in order”’ As most commentators observed ‘2TK to tell Trump! ‘ followed by why is he not telling the BBC?
November 16, 2025
Trump should be telling/ordering Starmer to get his house in order. This by ditching net zero, drilling and fracking, ditching Chagos, getting control of the vast government waste, cutting taxes…
November 16, 2025
The next election is last chance saloon for the UK, at least for the first half of this century. If we get a robust right of centre government which performs a Thatcher-like restoration (as opposed to revolution) of the pre-Blair era settlement there could be a good recovery. But if we get another leftist govt, either labour or an axis of evil of left wing parties, younger people with gumption and ambition will be better off elsewhere.
November 16, 2025
Agreed. The next election really will be the Last Chance Saloon for the British people.
November 16, 2025
It’s over then.
November 16, 2025
Agree John, Government our Public Services seem to have very very low productivity and that is a management problem which goes all the way to the very top.
We have had family members who have worked in both Private and Government run prison systems, and Private and Government run Healthcare systems.
The mindset of the management and staff is completely and utterly different, as are the results.
Funnily enough the Private sector pay for office staff and management is similar, but certainly the paid for Sickness allowance, and Pensions are a world apart, with the government schemes being VASTLY superior in benefit.
November 16, 2025
The public sector is inherently wasteful. This isn’t going to change all the time the electorate return PPE types with no solid real world experience or business competence. It would help if the public sector did less, so relieve the NHS of treating lifestyle diseases and local authority of providing care homes for people who spent all the money they ever had and didn’t put by for their old age. Rather than continue with the triple lock, phase out the state pension so people understand they need to invest for their future, not be a further burden on the working generation who have to support the colossal debt the previous generation stitched them up with.
November 16, 2025
If the state pension is being phased out then National insurance needs to be cut and that element statutorily invested into pension funds.
November 16, 2025
If national insurance was there to pay pensions, where is the surplus from all those contributions? Successive governments have spent that money, so it wasn’t put by for the old age of those who paid in. Governments those same people voted into office – they spent the pension fund. Not only that but they borrowed even more. What do the next generation get for all that debt? Yet they are the ones who will have to support its interest payments.
Reply the NI pension scheme was always pay as you go, with current workers paying for current pensioners.We take it in turns to be payers then beneficiaries. If you now make it funded current workers would need to pay much more to cover their funding as well as paying existing pensioners.
November 16, 2025
While there is no honest money, it’s impossible to save in Britain. When the state pension was introduced, many were opposed to it on the grounds that it removed personal responsibility. It also removed family cohesion and mutual-support.
November 16, 2025
DA
Unfortunately the Present Government is planning to do the exact opposite of what you suggest.
It is attacking Private pension schemes with IHT, so it will it will put more people off that form of saving.
It is now talking of attacking Home ownership with more taxation.
Thus it is actually attacking the very people, the savers, the strivers, the investors who are trying to be self sufficient.
People already saying what is the point of working, saving, when the Government want to legally confiscate any wealth you build up.
November 16, 2025
I very much doubt the triple lock will be maintained by any Government serious about balancing the books Dave. It will be unpopular to stop it but so will the many other things required to get us back on an even keel. Abolishing the State Pension altogether is an interesting thought but before anyone attempted that, I’d demand that Public Sector Final Salary pensions were also abolished. However, over the longer term, I do believe that the (unfunded) State Pension should be replaced by some form of mandatory contributory payment into investment funds not controlled by the Treasury and with clear tax rules protected from political tinkering. Ms Reeves recent kite flying activities around peoples pension planning is the last thing they need.
November 16, 2025
Link all Civil Servants’ pay to the results of all as a whole.
They would then brighten their ideas up and do something useful or starve with nothing.
November 16, 2025
Poor performance has to have consequences or poor performers simply accumulate over time.
Likewise, bad behaviour has to be punished (and seen to be). The changes made to Trumps speech by BBC news staff were not a “mistake” but quite clearly a deliberate attempt to deceive. Those responsible should not be allowed to ‘resign’ (or moved elsewhere) they should be fired, plain and simple. BBC management should be clear to both the Public (they serve) and the staff (they employ) that this conduct was completely unacceptable and will be treated with immediate disciplinary action if repeated. No ‘Ifs’, No ‘Buts’.
November 16, 2025
Bit unfair to blame all civil servants for abysmal management and leadership.
November 19, 2025
Dave: They are members of a collective group, just as employees in privated companies gain or lose according to the overall perforance of their business. Similarly, just as we all as taxpayers shoulder the expensive waste of our governement.
November 16, 2025
But its the civil service that write their own key performance indicators KPIs for annual bonus ….and the bar is set really low
November 16, 2025
The reason for the productivity collapse is obvious to most of us as we see terrible waste in the public-facing parts of the public sector. I suspect the rest which is under the bonnet is even worse.
Yet, the BBC reports that the reason is a conumdrum: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly91z5037vo
Here is an extract from the above web page:
“Some pointed to the lasting and outsize impact of the financial crisis on the UK, given our economy’s reliance on financial services through the City of London.
Others suggested the austerity era spending cuts and tax rises of the last Conservative-led government had contributed to it by reducing overall economic activity at a time when the UK had the potential to grow more quickly without generating inflation.
More recently, Brexit has been cited as a contributor – both due to the reduction in trade relative to the UK staying in the EU’s single market and customs union since 2020 and also the damage to business investment from the long period of uncertainty about the UK’s future status in the years after the 2016 referendum.
There is still no consensus on the reasons for the productivity slowdown, though many economists think, external historically low levels of investment in the UK economy – both from the private sector and government – are likely to be an important part of the story.”
No wonder trust in parts of the media is so low as it pumps this silly propaganda when the reason is obvious to all of us.
November 16, 2025
The ongoing failure of the Public Sector to provide value for money, or even to provide any service is recognised by all and probably by the Public Sector itself but what ca they do?
The union poser over their every action ensures no change of direction will ever be allowed. The constant increase in cost is baked into the union policy. Then look at the dilemma facing the low level employee in the PS. If they complain about doing nothing they will be ostracised by their fellow free loaders and where would they find employment if they resign?
Rachel has made them prisoners of the Public Sector and she has ensured the Private Sector are slaves to the Labour policy of supporting ‘our’ Public Sector.
Our NHS and our BBC and our Police and our Education Service and our Civil Service are the foundations,
Lab-our control, it is what they stand on.
November 16, 2025
If a service user requires a translator I assume that productivity halves for that intervention with the service giver and the translator doing the job of one person.
Perhaps an easy win. Bring your own translator who is not a relative or the opposite sex.
November 16, 2025
LEARN ENGLISH
No translations anywhere in the Kingdom.
November 16, 2025
Quite impressed by Streeting shutting down NHS England even though it’s costing £1bn in redundancy costs. Let’s see though if an equivalent number of people are simply recruited in another part of the organisation to compensate.
November 16, 2025
The public sector needs a massive shake up.
Firstly I’d send in some private companies to do a time and motion study on critical areas, while cutting down the hours that workers could disappear on union business to two hours per month.
Private company teams would make recommendations for improvements, including staff reductions. After the dust settles it is very likely most governments would simply ignore the recommendations and carry on in the same old way. That would be a mistake, a grave one.
In areas where low productivity is endemic I’d outsource them.
Accountability in the state sector seems to be a failure all of it’s own, in future, every individual should be assessed annually on their goal completions, work volume and quality. National bargaining along with working from abroad would be a thing of the past for civil servants and all state workers.
November 16, 2025
Take a look, in parallel, at the state bodies whose purpose is to govern elements of the legal relationship between citizen and state, and to enable citizens in dispute either to resolve the disputes or have them determined.
The Land Registry is a national disgrace, frequently taking up to 2 years to finalise a transaction registration and adding insult to injury by giving such estimates at the outset.
The Probate Registry is scarcely better, heaping delay onto the grief of the bereaved and demanding assessment and payment of IHT before the estate is unfrozen.
And lest’s not get started on the courts and tribunals service. Blair’s decision to centralise everything only led to gross inefficiency, compounded by lockdown, and the exorbitant “value based” fees to issue civil proceedings are at odds with a state’s core duty to provide an accessible and affordable dispute resolution process.
November 16, 2025
Public sector productivity will i suppose suffer another hit when the BBC is obliged to settle with President Trump for its slanderous doctoring of his speech (which we now see happened on more than one occasion over years). Lord Hall, a former DG, has said license fees mustn’t be used for this. How else does he think it should be paid? I have a suggestion: all former DGs of the BBC, including Lord Hall, who presided over the leftist politicisation of the BBC and other outrages such as the lies over the false Panorama ‘documentary’ and contrived interview with princess Diana should make a voluntary contribution to cover the amount. Some of them have done very nicely, one is the CEO of a leading left wing media outlet in the US. They should be able to lift a few million. As a gesture, they should also hand back their knighthoods and other honours, in recognition of the damage they have all done to the BBC’s former reputation for impartiality.
November 16, 2025
There should be no pay rises in the public sector without productivity improvements.
This should be the case across the board and continue at least until productivity is at least as good as in the private sector. ( not in itself anything to write home about.)
If President Trump needs to be compensated, 100% of the cost should be taken from the wage bill across the whole organisation.
November 16, 2025
So much of what they produce is not just worthless it does huge net harm. Can we at least stop this lunacy and fire those doing it so they can get net positive jobs?
November 16, 2025
An example of waste would be allowing human resources (HR) to create a diversity equalities and inclusion manager. That DEI manager then needs office space, secretarial staff, public relations staff and so on and so on. By definition of purpose alone that is a whole costly exercise to create a department dedicated to fill quotas and create discrimination.
Now put that in context of the NHS (or any State taxpayer funded entity), how many more patients were seen? How many more procedures were carried out? How did it work out hiring clinicians based on quotas and not best for the job, did standards and outcome improve?
These entities turning up in taxpayer funded organisation have other questions to answer as the decisions being made are entirely based on personal opinions, generally that means taking a political stance. What say did the taxpayer directly have on the politics chosen?
Translate to every small outlet of taxpayer spend and you finish up with the worst of the worst, not the best of the best, So wasted resources, wasted taxpayer money. Then ask what is Parliament, those with overall management responsibility actual doing? Sitting on their hands and hoping? They are there solely to hold Ministers, the Excitative to account. All the while Parliament is not doing its job is there any surprise no one else is no matter how remote they are
November 16, 2025
In this case the rot starts at the top – and courting populism is not going to fix it either
November 16, 2025
It must be difficult to measure public sector productivity while 90% still work from home !
November 16, 2025
“It is a simple case of poor public sector management.”
Yes, but it is deliberately made to be poor by an activist fifth column in its midst.
November 16, 2025
The Unions are running the Public Sector because they have so much power and money amassed since New Labour days.
Labour is backed by the Unions and power them into office having 309,000 (?) members.
Sunak asked Starmer how he would end the Doctors strike and he said “we would sit down at the table with them” – “We have done that already but it didn’t work” . It was solved by Labour caving instead. Simple until they come back for more, knowing the score.
November 16, 2025
You keep making the same point, so will I. Until you reduce the number of people in the public sector, Quangos and the NHS, nothing will change. But we need a very brave Government to do it.
Slightly off topic – The BBC and its employees seem oblivious to what they have done in doctoring President Trump’s speech and the left-wing bias of all their output.
Should there not be an independent public enquiry into the BBC? If they have done it once, they will have done it more than once. Their anti-Israel stance in the last two years is enough, on its own, to cancel the license fee.
Their action and attitudes are a disgrace to the UK. But Labour will be desperate to avoid any independent inquiry,
just as they are into rape gangs!
November 16, 2025
No inquiry, close the disaster down bankrupt so no redundancy payments.
We need a list of employees so we can send them to Coventry (cancel them in modern parlance).
Sell off the assets to pay the President.
Bury the bloody thing. It is worse than a disgrace to the British people. It has been in the forefront of the psycho-ops campaign against them.
November 16, 2025
Hospitals were run much more efficiently back in the day when Matrons and Sisters were in charge – it was only when they brought in these so called professionals to run things and heap money on them that productivity took a downturn.
November 16, 2025
Speaking of illegal migration Blair and Bush stirred it all up and then Cameron with NATO bombed Libya made it worse and now the West Africans have got in on the act with a population of 250 million in Nigeria alone there’ll be no end to it unless drastic action is taken. You have only to look at the profiles of the vast majority of those on the move all young males between the ages of young teens up to 30 years of age. They should be turned around and told If things are not working OK in their own countries they should be back home helping to bring about change in whatever way it might take and by not deserting their families – sick of it
November 17, 2025
Sir John writes a great deal about public sector poductivity. I am not sure why he is so certain about it. It would help if he were to explain how he measures it. It is not he same as the private sector where it is relatively easy. The number of widgets are made for how much cost or hour worked measures productivity very easily. The government doesn’t produce widgets. What is the productivity of defence? The more wars it is engaged in the higher its productivity? We do know that pursuit of the so called peace dividend has left our forces in such a parlous state their lack of capabilities severely constrains policy options. We also know that effectiveness of deterrence is measured by the absence of attacks on the country so zero wars equals zero productivity equals 100% effectivenss. Or should the fire service put out more fires to raise its productivity? If so should it ignite some to meet a KPI? If the number of fires per year reduces what has that got to do with the fire service? Nothing. We know that Blair’s NHS productivity drive was a farce. waiting lists were reduced simply by removing people from them, waiting a bit and then putting them back on so that all those in limbo waiting ti be put back on the formal waiting list weren’t counted. In the public sector higher output does not necessarily equate to effectiveness which depends on the policy objectives.
Would the police force’s productivity be increased or reduced if crime rates were reduced? Many factors influencing criminality are nothing to do with the police. So who’s to know?
Take Social Security. Is productivity increased simply by paying out more money or by not bothering to scrutinise applications for welfare and acceting mre so the number of recipients increases?
I could go on. So an explanation would be greatly appreciated.
Reply I will set it out again in a future piece.ONS has set it out. Fire service how much cost to be able to respond to every incident in a timely way. Defence how much cost to be able to send a force to carry out a task.