Standards Without Substance: A Critical Evaluation of the UK Policy Profession’s Competency Framework

This article asks whether the UK’s competency framework for policy officials is fit for purpose, and finds that it is not. The quality of policy advice across Westminster systems has been eroding for some time, and reform efforts in several jurisdictions have tried to build the individual policy capacity of officials. In the UK, that effort has produced a succession of frameworks, none with much impact; the most recent, the 2021 Policy Profession Standards , is referenced in only 0.5% of advertised policy roles. The article makes two contributions: the first systematic account of how the earlier frameworks developed into the Standards, and a policy instrument analysis, supported by reflexive thematic analysis, of the Standards themselves. They are functional, specifying tasks to perform rather than the knowledge and capabilities officials need; atomistic, fragmenting the role into hundreds of separate descriptors; loaded with extraneous requirements; and missing fundamentals such as specialised policy knowledge and experience. Because a framework meant to build policy capacity instead carries the power to promote rather than hinder policy failure, these findings offer a design lesson for any jurisdiction that sets out to codify policy capacity.