Organisation charts give insight into government

The Cabinet Office has published new details about civil servants working at the heart of government.

Structure charts of government

Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, has asked departments to publish for the first time structure charts. These set out details of the number and grade of staff working in different teams. In June the Cabinet Office published its chart showing the structure for senior staff, but this has now been updated to include team numbers.

The structure charts show:
- the names, job title and salary for all senior civil servants at director level and above
- the job title of all senior civil servants at deputy director level, along with the number of staff in their team and the breakdown of their grades
- More data will be added over the next few weeks including the total salary cost of each team reporting to deputy directors, job descriptions for senior roles and team functions.

Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, who chairs the government's Public Sector Transparency Board, said that the announcement reaffirms the government's commitment to opening up unprecedented levels of data.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_191581

The charts (on a preliminary look) are quite good. When will we get any?

I noticed that Senator Terry le Sueur (in answer to questions) repeatedly says he has given the information, and he refers to the existing charts in business plans, which are basically top layer sketches, and more of an organisational doodle. The only decent chart we have was done privately by Senator Sarah Ferguson, and she was not permitted to include the names, job title and salary for all senior civil servants at director level and above.

If the UK Government can quite cheerfully provide all this information, it is about time we did - note it shows salaries and not just salary bands for top civil servants. Clearly they have no problems with Data Protection, so that can't function as an excuse - our Data Protection Law is modelled on the UK.

On the lower levels (and they have lots of civil servants) it is more statistical, but still gives (a) number of staff (b) breakdown of grades. And it is going to be improved even more!

It's about time we followed suit, and Chief Ministers (or the Departmental heads) stopped saying it can't be done, or such information is private and cannot be revealed. That is a bluff, and the UK government has shown how hollow that excuse is now - it is providing a degree of real transparency beside which Jersey's approach is in the dark ages.

Is there any politician who would now like to ask the following question of the Chief Minister in the States:


Question:

Given the UK's commitment to transparency and organisation charts showing

- the names, job title and salary for all senior civil servants at director level and above
- the job title of all senior civil servants at deputy director level, along with the number of staff in their team and the breakdown of their grades

how long before we may expect Jersey to follow suit?