Too many ministers?

Book excerpt: The Committee examines the number of ministers in the United Kingdom Government and calls for substantial reductions in the number of government ministers and in the wider payroll vote in the House of Commons. It also builds on some of the conclusions of their report on Good Government (HC 97, session 2008-09, 8th report (ISBN 9780215532244). There are currently 119 ministers in the United Kingdom Government, in addition to those in the devolved institutions. The Committee is sceptical about claims that this reflects the growing complexity of government, noting that in the years around 1950 the government created the welfare state, undertook major nationalisations and administered the British Empire with only 81 ministers.The Committee concludes that some junior ministerial posts are unnecessary and moreover that an excessive number of posts is harmful to good government, costly and inefficient; even where ministers are unpaid. There is also concern about the size of the 'payroll vote' in the House of Commons, which now comprises nearly 40 per cent of the governing Parliamentary Party.The Committee's key recommendations are: A reduction in the number of ministers of around one third; steps to close the loop-hole whereby unpaid ministers do not count against some statutory limits on the numbers of ministers; halving the number of Parliamentary Private Secretaries by restricting them to one for each Department or Cabinet Ministers and abolishing Parliamentary Assistants to Regional Ministers; and a limit on the total size of the payroll vote in the House of Commons of 15 per cent of its total membership.