In a speech at the Institute for Government today, Darren Jones laid out his plans to transform and upgrade the government's central finance system.
Well, good afternoon everyone. It's great to be back at the Institute for government. And as has been alluded to, I was here not very long ago. But I'm delighted to be back because I've been working on a project with colleagues in the Treasury that I'm told is not particularly newsy, but for me and a select group is very, very exciting. And so we wanted to talk about it and this was a perfect venue to do so. So thank you once again for hosting us.
When I became Chief Secretary to the Treasury and therefore responsible for public spending, I didn't quite envisage that I would be giving a speech like this, starting with a story about the sinking of the General Belgrano during the Falklands War. Nor to be making the connection between that event and my plans to modernize how we use finance and performance management data in Whitehall. But following a conversation with Lord Sainsbury, it turns out I am. And so I'm now going to tell you the story, if you don't mind me pinching it.
So some of you might remember that Clive Ponting was a senior civil servant who leaked government information about the sinking of the General Belgrano, and in 1985, after a court case that resulted in the then cabinet secretary Robert Armstrong, drafting something that's now called the Armstrong Memorandum, which, based on some earlier constitutional principles, set out essentially how ministers and civil servants are accountable for their actions.
The memorandum, in a classically British way, has become entwined in the Constitution and become an important part of our While constitutional principles, it's now become a doctrine. The Armstrong doctrine, I'm told by the House of Commons library. And essentially what it means is that government departments are autonomous, independent organizations that report directly to Parliament. Now, that doctrine is important and obviously will continue. But in this modern world where we are trying to use data and technology to better deliver public services, we need to move on a little. And let me explain why.
So when I arrived at the Treasury last year, I had assumed that the Treasury acted a bit like a finance department in a kind of multinational organization or a group, organizations with different lines of business or parts of the business that reported up to the Treasury.
But what I've realised over the last few months is that actually the way our finance systems are designed means the relationship is a little bit more like a bank and its customer. So the Treasury, as the bank has a load of customers, the departments in government, and it's our job to anticipate their financing needs, to think about how we're going to raise the money, to be able to give them the money, to request information from them about what they want to do, which we do via letterhead and Excel spreadsheets. and then use word based document advice
