Whitehall red tape to be slashed as Labour unveils sweeping bureaucracy overhaul

Ministers will be allowed to approve more policies without consulting the rest of the Cabinet under Labour’s plans for an "exorcism" of red tape in Whitehall.

On Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer will announce a series of reforms for government departments, including changes to the "write-round" process used by ministers to approve policies.

Under the current rules, most decisions made within a department must be cleared with other ministers in a time-consuming exchange of official letters.

The process, which can take three weeks to complete, will be scrapped for smaller policy decisions to allow ministers to make decisions faster.

Downing Street is also expected to reduce the number of mandatory consultations that ministers must conduct before changing government policy and cut down on equality and environmental impact assessments.

The reforms will be led by Dame Antonia Romeo, the new Cabinet Secretary, and Nick Thomas-Symonds, a Cabinet Office minister.

Writing for The Telegraph, Mr. Thomas-Symonds criticized the write-round process as a "slow erosion of individual responsibility" that "outsources responsibility from the initial judgment of the decision-maker [...] onto the processes themselves, and accountability is passed around like a hot potato".

Write-rounds are designed to encourage other ministers to comment on their colleagues’ policy proposals to support the principle of collective agreement, where each member of the Government is supportive of its plans.

However, the process has been criticized for slowing down decision-making and allowing ministers to hold other departments’ policy plans hostage by refusing to sign them off.

It is understood that ministers and officials are frustrated by the number of write-rounds they are required to complete, and the format of exchanging letters.

Officials used AI to find examples of red tape

Under the plans, ministers could be allowed to launch public consultations, decide how a sector of the economy should be regulated, or publish legislation without asking colleagues first.

The changes follow the appointment of Dame Antonia, a former permanent secretary and envoy to New York, as Britain’s most senior civil servant last month.

Her predecessor, Sir Chris Wormald, was criticized by ministers and officials for slowing down the Government and making it too difficult to make policy changes.

Mr. Thomas-Symonds said that the efficiency drive "might evoke memories of Nigel Farage’s Doge turned tax rise agenda" or Jacob Rees-Mogg’s work-from-home clampdown, but that Labour would "make the state efficient to restore it" rather than taking a "sledgehammer" to departments.

He said officials had used AI to find examples of red tape in legislation that governs Whitehall and found "the digital equivalent of a cluttered attic".

"It’s time to start a program of sweeping change," he said. "Unnecessary hurdles must go. The great exorcism of Whitehall’s ghost."

Under the reforms, the leaders of government departments will be forced to focus on Downing Street’s political priorities with a new "accountability framework".

The reduction in consultations follows a review of the "sludge" in Whitehall, where one government was found to have consulted the public about changing how it produces its annual financial report.