By Richard Johnstone | 14 June 2013
Cabinet reshuffles should take place only once every five years as frequent ministerial changes have ‘a negative impact on the effectiveness of the government’, MPs have said.
In an examination of the impact of Cabinet shakeups, the political and constitutional reform select committee said that some moving of ministers was ‘inevitable’ but it should not become a ‘habit’.
Frequent changes can slow government down, the committee warned, as even the most able minister needed time to become familiar with a new brief. This was particularly the case when the new minister had no previous experience of the subject area.
Among the ‘extraordinary’ examples highlighted in the report was transport, which had six secretaries between 2001 and 2010 and three since the 2010 general election.
Implementation of government policy would benefit from having continuity of ministers within the responsible department, MPs said, and this would also enable Parliament to more effectively hold government to account.
There should therefore be an ‘expectation’ that secretaries of state remain in post for the five-year length of a Parliament, with junior ministers retained for a minimum of two years, the report concluded.
A majority of the committee also called for a Cabinet Office minister to be responsible for ministerial development, to oversee compulsory ministerial training for new appointments and to undertake appraisals. Other reforms suggested included enabling individual ministers to deal directly with their successors, rather than relying exclusively on the civil service to conduct handovers.
Committee chair Graham Allen said reshuffles were ‘damaging to the effectiveness of individual ministers and of government as a whole’.
He added: ‘In the UK, we’ve got used to having reshuffles every couple of years, but other countries manage very well without them. Every time there is a reshuffle, it is proceeded by months of speculation about who will move where, which in itself causes a kind of paralysis within government.’
Allen said it was ‘welcome’ that David Cameron had conducted only one major Cabinet reshuffle since coming to power in May 2010.
‘I hope our report will encourage future prime ministers to follow his example. We call for secretaries of state to be left in post for the length of a Parliament. Taken together with the advent of fixed-term Parliaments, this should enable them to make a real difference.
‘We heard a great deal of evidence about the irrationality of reshuffles. We recognise that, at their heart, reshuffles are political events. But our report makes some recommendations to improve training, feedback and handovers, which are aimed at making the process more rational.’
