They are important because they service the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Committee System.
The Cabinet Committees are the bottleneck that all major policy or legislative or regulatory decision must pass through. As the Secretaries they hold the pen for the agendas and the cabinet decisions. They certainly gives them a great deal of influence.
They are also made up from people in the public service who have been talent- spotted and jumped through a number of job hurdles to get there. After four or five years of providing drudge-like service in the PCO, they do well they go on to be Assistant Deputy Ministers and perhaps Deputy Ministers. So they are a bright, ambitious lot.
But that is different then suggesting they have their own agenda. Ultimately they are there to serve Few: the Prime Minister and his staff, a small number of powerful ministers who mostly chair the Committees and the Deputy Ministers and the Clerk of the Privy Council who hold the key to their future job promotions. Power is murky stuff! Not always clear who has it and it moves around.
I've heard that new programs nearly always need to be signed off by someone in the PCO - and that the PCO will also sometimes push their own new ideas "down" to individual departments. That's not to say there's a particular political agenda, but it does imply that most (all?) government decisions must move through the PCO hoop. So, if I'm trying to understand government, perhaps it would make sense to focus more attention on PCO.
They are important because they service the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Committee System.
The Cabinet Committees are the bottleneck that all major policy or legislative or regulatory decision must pass through. As the Secretaries they hold the pen for the agendas and the cabinet decisions. They certainly gives them a great deal of influence.
They are also made up from people in the public service who have been talent- spotted and jumped through a number of job hurdles to get there. After four or five years of providing drudge-like service in the PCO, they do well they go on to be Assistant Deputy Ministers and perhaps Deputy Ministers. So they are a bright, ambitious lot.
But that is different then suggesting they have their own agenda. Ultimately they are there to serve Few: the Prime Minister and his staff, a small number of powerful ministers who mostly chair the Committees and the Deputy Ministers and the Clerk of the Privy Council who hold the key to their future job promotions. Power is murky stuff! Not always clear who has it and it moves around.
Interesting.
I've heard that new programs nearly always need to be signed off by someone in the PCO - and that the PCO will also sometimes push their own new ideas "down" to individual departments. That's not to say there's a particular political agenda, but it does imply that most (all?) government decisions must move through the PCO hoop. So, if I'm trying to understand government, perhaps it would make sense to focus more attention on PCO.