The Treasury had advertised for a senior civil servant to lead sponsorships in the National Savings and Investments. No knowledge of financial markets required…
Reeves’ department is advertising for a Senior Civil Service role responsible for the sponsorship of National Savings and Investments, the development of innovative government debt instruments, and the Treasury’s representation on NS&I’s Audit and Risk Committee. It was only weeks ago that NS&I admitted misplacing almost £500 million in customer savings and saw off its Chief Executive…
The advert for ‘Deputy Director, Debt and Reserves Management team’, posted on Civil Service Jobs, carries a salary of £81,000. The job description states that whilst the role would suit those with an “understanding of financial markets” this expertise “can also be developed in the role.” That’s while the “essential criteria” for the role include “Civil Service behaviours” like “Working Together” and “Seeing the Big Picture” – no knowledge of debt or reserves needed…
Whoever gets the job will lead the Treasury’s interests in NS&I’s major business transformation programme, its customer remediation work, and the strategic policy direction of retail savings instruments used to finance government borrowing. NS&I currently holds over £230 billion of customer deposits and raises several billion pounds a year in financing for the Exchequer. The successful applicant can also work part-time and from home…
Ameer Kotecha, CEO at the newly-launched Centre for Government Reform, said: “This beggars belief. The job spec for the role sponsoring NS&I – which just misplaced nearly half a billion pounds of savers’ money – lists developing a ‘diverse’ and ‘inclusive’ team as key to the job while financial markets expertise is optional. Whitehall needs to be reformed, and senior roles need genuine sector experts who can deliver for the British people. Until that happens, expect more crises, not fewer.” Maybe they can flexibly work on someone else’s dime…
Speaking to Adam Boulton on Times Radio about kicking the Golders Green suspect, Heidi Alexander said:
“I thought that if I was in the shoes of that police officer, then if I’m honest, given the situation, and the fact that he had a backpack on his back, and they were worried about whether that might go off, I could, if I was a police officer, frankly, I could see myself having taken similar action.”