Government should get it right first time

Yesterday's Daily Telegraph included this excellent article by Sue Cameron, exposing government's terrible record of poor decision making, particularly in the Department for Work and Pensions, and the burden this puts on citizens and on the tribunal system. We strongly agree, and said so in a letter to the paper which they didn't publish, so we've reproduced it here:

Sir,

Sue Cameron is right to highlight the scandal of poor decision making by government departments (The state needs to get it right first time, 16th Feb). It has devastating effects on the individuals involved and costs the state, primarily the Ministry of Justice, hundreds of millions in administration of the tribunal service and in legal aid to help people pursue appeals. Research suggests up to 40% of the demand for advice services is generated by preventable failures in central or local government. There is no sense in allowing this to continue, especially when the Government is trying to reduce public spending.

The Ministry of Justice's solution is to cut legal aid. This reduces upfront cost as people are less able to appeal, but leaves people with nowhere to turn, does nothing to address bad decision making, and ultimately costs more as the state is forced to intervene once the problem has escalated.

Instead, the Government should work with the advice sector to record where departments are going wrong and improve their decision making, and retain legal aid for appeals (in welfare benefit cases, for example) so that those who slip through the net can still challenge wrong decisions. As decision making improves the legal aid budget will naturally fall.

We urge government departments, including the Department of Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Justice, to take on this challenge, and suggest it features strongly in the recommendations of the Cabinet Office's review of the not-for-profit advice sector.