Preparing the Treasury for the Election
| Date | 01 January 1998 |
| DOI | 10.1177/095207679801300101 |
| Published date | 01 January 1998 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Preparing
the
Treasury
for
the
Election
The
Frank
Stacey
Lecture,
delivered
at
the
Civil
Service
College,
Sunningdale,
on
Monday
1st
September
1997,
during
the
27th
Annual
PAC
Conference.
Sir
Terence
Burns
Permanent
Secretary,
HM
Treasury
Introduction
I
am
delighted
to
be
giving
this
lecture
tonight
following
so
many
distinguished
previous
speakers.
Like
many
of
those
speakers,
I
did
not
know
Frank
Stacey
personally.
But
I
have
been
impressed
by
what
I
have
learned
of
his
interest
in
the
impact
of
the
quality
of
administration
on
the
general
public;
and
his
abiding
enthusiasm
for
the
academic
study
of
public
administration.
The
Treasury
is
rarely
involved
directly
with
the
public
but
exercises
its
influence
through
the
policy
process;
so
my
subject
this
evening
is
the
management
of
the
Treasury
itself
before,
during
and
after
the
General
Election.
We
have
recently
completed
the
first
100
days
of
the
first
change
of
government
for
18
years.
During
the
months
that
lie
ahead,
I
am
sure
that
we
will
learn
a
great
deal
about
how
the
Labour
Party
in
Opposition
prepared
for
government.
That
is
a
story
for
others
to
tell.
My
case
study
is
how
the
Treasury
prepared
for
the
possibility
of
a
Labour
government,
which
I
want
to
relate
to
the
modernisation
of
the
Treasury
over
the
past
five
years.
One
of
the
main
objectives
of
this
modernisation
was
an
increase
in
our
ability
to
cope
with
change.
For
some
time
we
suspected
that
its
first
serious
test
would
be
a
change
of
government.
This
is,
after
all,
when
any
machinery
of
government
faces
its
greatest
uncertainty.
Other
governments
such
as
the
United
States
tend
to
take
rather
longer
over
it
than
we
do.
And
when
I
joined
the
Treasury
as
Chief
Economic
Adviser
in
January
1980,
I
saw
the
civil
service
still
coming
to
terms
with
the
new
approach
of
the
Conservative
government.
It
is
too
soon
for
a
definitive
view
on
whether
we
passed
the
test
of
a
change
of
government.
But
tonight
is
an
opportunity,
before
memories
become
too
misted
over
by
the
passage
of
time
and
familiarity
with
the
new
government,
to
describe
what
we
as
a
department
sought
to
achieve
and
how
we
set
about
it.
And
it
may
help
to
explain
the
work
we
undertook
in
the
run-up
to
the
Election
if
Public
Policy
and
Administration
Volume
13
No.
1
Spring
1998
I
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