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Capability Reviews announced for five more departments

Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell today announced a further five departments undertaking ‘Capability Reviews’. These are the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Ministry of Defence, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development.

The reviews aim to improve the capability of the Civil Service to meet today's delivery challenges and to be ready for tomorrows.

The reviews will consider capability in the Civil Service in three key areas – leadership, strategy and delivery. Each review aims to identify where departments need to improve and will include key actions which will address these areas. The programme will be rolled out across 17 departments by the summer 2007.

Sir Gus said:

‘We are well underway with the Capability Review programme now. Twelve departments have been or are presently undergoing Capability Reviews, showing how we remain on track with our determination to develop a world class Civil Service for the 21st century.

‘We recently published the findings of the first four department reviews. As well as recognising the areas where departments do well these reviews demonstrated how we are prepared to both highlight areas of improvement and put in place tough actions to achieve these improvements.’

The review teams have been drawn from the private sector, the wider public sector and board–level members of other government departments.

The findings of the Capability Reviews for these five departments will be published in spring 2007.

Notes to editors

1. More information about the Capability Reviews is available at. www.civilservice.gov.uk/capabilityreviews [External website].
2. Each review is carried out by the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit with a team of external reviewers.
3. The Capability Reviews for the Department for Constitutional Affairs, Department for Education and Skills, Home Office and Department for Work and Pensions were published on 19th July 2006.
4. The Capability Reviews for the Cabinet Office, Department for Communities and Local Government and Department for Trade and Industry will be published this winter.

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