Call for civil service to reform

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And the doctrine of ministerial responsibility - which holds that ministers alone are accountable for everything that happens in their departments - "severely undermines" civil service accountability and should be reformulated, it added.

A report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) said ministers should remain accountable for policy, resources and strategy, but civil servants should become accountable for operational matters and ensuring departments are "fit for purpose".

A Civil Service Executive should also be created, led by a head who would appoint permanent secretaries, reward achievement and manage core corporate functions and services.

Ministers would retain control over resources and have a power of veto over senior appointments while retaining responsibility for policy-making.

Ippr director Nick Pearce said: "The man in Whitehall does not know best.

"Civil servants need to learn from excellent practice around the world and accept that they do not have a monopoly on good advice."

He added: "Although Whitehall is improving and there are many thousands of excellent civil servants, the pace of change is painfully slow.

"Looking at civil services around the world it is clear that the British civil service will never achieve consistently high performance without systemic reform."

Ippr called for a new civil service governing body to scrutinise performance, define expectations of civil servants and ministers and manage any disagreements between them.