Working to make government more effective

Comment

For how long should ministers be in place?

One straightforward way for prime ministers to improve the effectiveness of their governments is by not shifting ministers around too often.

One straightforward way for prime ministers to improve the effectiveness of their governments is by not shifting ministers around too often.

A near universal complaint of former and current ministers and civil servants interviewed for the Institute’s new report The Challenge of Being a Minister is about the damaging effects of over-frequent reshuffles on the quality of government. There are big variations. The most senior ministers, not just prime ministers but also chancellors of the exchequer and foreign secretaries tend to serve longer than other cabinet ministers. Over the 31 years of the last two governments, there were just seven chancellors, four of them serving four years or more. But just in the 13 years of the Blair and Brown Governments, there were six defence secretaries, eight trade and industry secretaries and six home secretaries. This is not the way to ensure consistency in the leadership of departments or in policy. The German example By contrast, since 1949, Germany, including the former West Germany, has had just 15 ministers for the economy/business, against 35 in equivalent positions in the UK. And no one would argue that Britain has had a superior industrial performance. German policymakers seem puzzled by talk of reshuffles which seldom occur in the Federal Government, where ministers are generally appointed for the four year length of an administration and only occasionally changed in the interim. One reason is that German governments are invariably coalitions and it is much harder to make changes when there has to be agreement between the leaders both on which party should hold a post and, then, on which individual should. That discourages the type of frequent changes we have seen in Britain in the past, but perhaps not while where is a coalition. Effective ministers should be left in place for longer There will, of course, always be reshuffles because of resignation triggered by scandals, personal problems and policy disagreements. But most ministerial changes are not forced but of choice. Their frequency and scale can, and should be reduced. Obvious duds should be dropped, but effective ministers should be left in place for longer, rather than moved around almost for the sake of it. David Cameron appears to have got this message. In a recent interview, he said he was not a great believer in "endlessly moving people between different jobs...you’ve got to try to appoint good people and keep them." This issue came up several times during the launch of the report at the Institute of Government on Tuesday 24 May. Lord Heseltine was inclined to see frequent reshuffles as inevitable and part of the "currency of politics". Others were more critical of the impact, including Lord Sainsbury of Turville who noted that in his eight years as Science Minister he had served under five Trade and Industry Secretaries. Tessa Jowell, who was closely identified with the 2012 Olympic bid for nine years, argued that ministers should be appointed for an agreed period of time on the basis of a policy contract specifying specific projects. Minimum periods There is no single ideal time for a minister to hold a post. As noted earlier, holders of the most senior cabinet positions may be in office for the whole of a parliament, or even longer. The same applies to those handling some largely non-partisan posts such as trade promotion, or science, which are particularly suitable for outsiders, Lords ministers with no past political background, often called GOATs ('government of all the talents'). The main question is about the mass of other ministerial posts in between. Civil servants agreed that a minister could not do anything in 18 months but three or four years is "a bit long because you come round to things you have done before." Consequently, the new report recommends that secretaries of state should serve at least three years in one post, and junior ministers at least two years: and for good ministers, these should be minimum periods.

Topic
Ministers
Keywords
Cabinet
Publisher
Institute for Government

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