Minister numbers 'should be cut' (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Minister numbers 'should be cut'

5:19am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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The number of government ministers should be slashed by up to a third, an influential committee of MPs said.

The Commons Public Administration Committee said it was "hard to justify" the almost doubling in the total number of ministers since the start of the 20th century.

It complained that ministerial appointments were increasingly seen as a form of political reward rather than because there was a need for the post.

The committee said that some junior ministers had so little to do, their civil servants were reduced to "making work" for them.

It pointed out that in 1900, when Britain still had an empire to run, there were just 60 ministers.

In contrast there are now 119, despite the privatisation of many of the functions of the state and the passing of government work to the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

"Decisions on the number of ministers should be led by practical need, not political reward. There is a growing consensus that the ever increasing number of ministers harms the effectiveness of government," it said.

"Ministers' role is to take key decisions, account to Parliament for them and conduct discussions at the highest level. Some junior ministerial roles appear to fall far short of this.

"Civil servants should not be put in the position of 'making work' for ministers. Not only is this costly and inefficient but it devalues the role of ministers.

"It would be better for government, for the public purse and for ministers themselves if the number of ministers were reduced, possibly by as much as one third."