The civil service

• Thatcher had some succession slimming down the civil service
• With 732,000 civil servants in 1980, Britain had 3 times as many bureaucrats as comparable nations
• Thatcher used business-minded colleagues and advisers brought in from outside government to help her achieve the desire reduction
• As Environment Minister (1979-83), Michael Heseltine introduced the Management Information System for Ministers (MINIS)
• MINIS allowed Heseltine to monitor the cost and responsibilities of civil servants more closely
• Where inefficiencies were uncovered by MINIS, job losses followed; one in four workers at the Environment Minister were sacked in just 3 years
• Thatcher abolished the Civil Service Department in 1981, this had existed to supervise and protect its members, but Thatcher saw it as a trade union in all but name
• MINIS was rolled out to other ministries under the Financial Management Initiative
• By 1988, 22.5% of civil servants had been sacked, saving an estimated £1 billion
• The Next Steps report in 1988 prompted a less centralized civil service and the rise of more flexible agencies that would work with the private sector to deliver services
• By 1991, there were 57 such 'agencies'
• By 1997, 76% of civil servants worked in almost 100 different agencies, they remained the key way in which public services are delivered
• Examples of these agencies included the Benefits Agency (for the Department of Social Security), the Employment Service Agency (for the Department of Education and Employment) and the Prison service (for the Home Office)