The government's drive to reform the public services must extend to Whitehall itself, the prime minister has said.

Delivering a major speech on the future of the state's administrative apparatus, Tony Blair warned that "the world has changed and therefore the civil service must change with it".

But it is not only Whitehall that needs to reform, he said. Politicians also have to "loosen up" in the way they approach the implementation of their policies.

In a speech that appeared to give backing to the basic principles adopted in the leaked Gershon review, the prime minister heralded a major shake-up in the way the government is organised.

Learning from experience

Highlighting the experience of the foot and mouth outbreak, Blair said lessons could be learned from the way the army focussed on getting the job done.

"They didn't take no for an answer, they used rules as a means to an end, not an end in themselves, and as the situation changed, they changed," he said.

The prime minister said that politicians had been required to stand back and allow the armed forces to take risks.

Blair also said that making a success of the reforms would need politicians to change the way they themselves work.

"Politicians will have to be more intelligent about the information that they seek," he said.

"A significant part of what we call bureaucracy results from them seeking vast amounts of information from frontline staff, often via a range of different agencies.

"In addition, politicians will have to allow the system to take some risks.  Sometimes things will be tried and will fail, and that shouldn't denote a major political crisis."

He added that an "adventurous" civil service would require politicians to "loosen up".

"Sometimes we can be so frightened of the process of accountability that we opt for inertia," he said.

Success and reform

The prime minister also set out his view of what factors were required to produce a successful civil service.

He said this included a sense of ambition, a focus on outcomes, the use of best practice project management techniques, a sense of urgency, and "seeing things through until the change that we are trying to bring about is irreversible".

Blair added the implementation of these reforms would see a smaller "strategic centre" and a civil service with professional and specialist skills.

He said there would be more links to the private and voluntary sectors, more rapid promotion and an end to tenure for senior posts, improved project management skills, an innovative approach to policy and "government organised around problems, not problems around government".

Best traditions

Giving his backing to the long held principles of political neutrality, the prime minister also lavished praise on the best traditions of Whitehall.

But he added that public servants needed to prove their critics wrong by demonstrating that they could be a force for good.

He said there must be "radical reform in the way government itself works" to ensure it makes the most of modern technology.

Blair pointed to examples of successful reform across government, but warned that "too much of it is still exceptional and not the norm".

With a major review of Whitehall underway within government, and both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats looking for more efficient administration, the prime minister's speech gives further weight to the emerging political consensus that the civil service needs to undergo radical reform.