Equality control?

As a result of the changes at Cabinet level, six departments are now on their third secretary of state of the parliament

MoD (Fallon replacing Hammond), Defra (Truss replacing Paterson) and Wales (Crabb replacing Jones) join Scotland, DfT and DCMS in having a third secretary of state. DfE (Morgan replacing Gove) and FCO (Hammond replacing Hague) move onto their second secretary of state of the parliament. Only BIS, the Cabinet Office, DCLG, DWP, the Treasury and the Home Office are led by the same minister now as at the government’s initial appointment in May 2010. David Cameron has now appointed four sets of ministers without being forced to by resignations in just over four years between May 2010 and July 2014. By contrast, Tony Blair appointed seven unforced sets in 10 years between 1997 and 2007, but was forced into further changes 13 times compared to Cameron’s five.

Every department experienced a change in the July 2014 reshuffle apart from the Scotland Office

More than half of the ministers at BIS (6 out of 9 posts newly filled), DfE (6 out of 9), and Wales (2 out of 3) are new to their post as of the reshuffle, and half of the ministers at NIO (1 of 2), MoD (3 of 6) and DECC (2 of 4) are new to their posts. This doesn’t capture the full story – for example, ministers promoted within their department. At the Treasury, for example, David Gauke was elevated to Financial Secretary from Exchequer Secretary, to replace Nicky Morgan (who had been Economic Secretary before Financial Secretary), who in turn had replaced Sajid Javid (who had taken the same path as Morgan before promotion to Secretary of State at DCMS). 20 people retain the same post from the initial appointment of the government in May 2010: • David Cameron (PM) • Nick Clegg (DPM) • Vince Cable (Secretary of State, BIS) • Iain Duncan Smith (Secretary of State, DWP) • Francis Maude (Minister for the Cabinet Office) • Theresa May (Home Secretary) • George Osborne (Chancellor) • Eric Pickles (Secretary of State, DCLG) • Lord Astor (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, MoD) • Lord Freud (Parliamentary Under Secretary for Welfare Reform, DWP) • Earl Howe (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Quality, DH) • Oliver Letwin (Minister for Government Policy, Cabinet Office) • David Lidington (Minister of State for Europe) • David Mundell (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland) • Lord Wallace of Tankerness (HM Advocate General for Scotland) • Steve Webb (Minister of State for Pensions) • Baroness Anelay (Chief Whip, Lords) • Mark Hunter (Assistant Whip, Commons) • Baroness Northover (Whip, Lords) • Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Whip, Lords).

The number of women able to attend Cabinet has increased from five to eight, but the gender balance has barely changed at junior ministerial level

Before the reshuffle, three full members of the Cabinet were women (May at HO, Greening at DfID, Villers at NIO) while two women had ‘attending cabinet’ status (Warsi, Morgan). Now, there are five full members (May, Greening, Villiers, Truss at Defra and Morgan at DfE) with three attending (Warsi, Esther McVey from DWP and leader of the Lords, Baroness Stowell).

Below Cabinet level, there remains only one female Tory Minister of State (now Anna Soubry at MoD, instead of Esther McVey, promoted to attending Cabinet at DWP). In the Conservative part of the government, the number of female parliamentary under secretaries has increased by two (from 8 to 10) and the number of female whips decreased by one. In total, there are 24 Tory women in government positions. There were no changes to the Lib Dem ministerial team (though reports suggest there may be a change in the autumn). This means there remains no Lib Dem woman in or attending Cabinet, one woman Minister of State, three women parliamentary under secretaries and three female whips in the Lib Dem part of the Government.

The percentage of Conservative women holding government posts is higher than the percentage of Conservative MPs who are women

  While 16% of Conservative MPs are women and 23% of all MPs are women, women now account for 25% of the Conservative part of the government. 28% of the Lib Dem part of the government is female, compared to 13% of the party’s MPs. In total, women now account for just over 25% of ministers in government.

However, the Government Equalities Office appears to have moved department for a third time since the 2010 General Election.

  We noted at the time (09:31 to be precise) that Nicky Morgan had been promoted not only to Secretary of State for DfE but also Minister for Women and Equalities (she had previously been Minister for Women, with Sajid Javid holding on to Equalities). But we didn’t spot any government announcement about the Government Equalities Office (GEO) following Morgan from DCMS to DfE. In fact, there wasn’t one (at least not one that we can find). But according to GOV.UK’s ‘Ministers’ page, the GEO appears to have moved:

Jo Swinson has moved from DCMS to DfE – this was not announced on the Number 10 twitter account on 14 July or on the list of moves, but does appear without fanfare in an updated PDF list published that evening. But questions remain. Helen Grant MP remains at DCMS only, despite holding an equalities brief. And the GEO’s own website lists neither Nicky Morgan nor Nick Boles as being Equalities ministers, and says the department is still part of DCMS. This justifiable confusion makes a more serious point. Since its establishment in 2007, the Office has moved to the Home Office (when Theresa May became Minister for Women and Equalities in May 2010), then to DCMS (upon Maria Miller’s appointment in September 2012 and through the splitting of the role in April 2014), and now apparently to DfE under Nicky Morgan as a recombined Minister for Women and Equalities. Despite the promotion of women in government, the shuffling of the GEO means some equality assurance may still be necessary.

And finally…

  There is a restriction on the number of paid ministerial posts at different levels of government (as helpfully explained in this House of Commons Library briefing paper). Perhaps that explains Andrew Selous’ appointment as an Assistant Whip as well as being the ‘full time Minister for Prisons and Rehabilitation’ at MoJ: