Failure to control civil service salaries and weak personnel management are threatening Whitehall’s reform programme, the National Audit Office has reported.
A report by the spending watchdog, published on 11 March, blames rising senior management salaries for the bulk of a 10% real terms increase in Whitehall staff costs since 2001. A process of ‘grade creep’ took place, with 14,000 additions made to the lower levels of civil service management at grades 6 and 7, the auditors claim.
