PARLIAMENTARY ACCOUNTABILITY

PARLIAMENTARY ACCOUNTABILITY

Also by Philip Giddings MARKETING BOARDS AND MINISTERS

Parliamentary Accountability A Study ofparliament and Executive Agencies Edited by Philip Giddings Lecturerin Politics University ofreading for the Study of Parliament Group

Selection, editorial matter, chapters 4 and 11 Philip Giddings 1995 Chapters 1-3 and 5-10 Macmillan Press Ltd 1995 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1995 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraphof this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1995 by MACMILLA.N PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-13684-1 DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-13682-7 ISBN 978-1-349-13682-7 (ebook) A catalogue. record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 04 03 02 01 00

Contents Page Preface..................................... vii Contributors................................. ix Part I: The Context of the Initiative 1 The Origins of the Next Steps Programme: Gavin Drewry and Philip Giddings 3 2 Ministerial Responsibility and Next Steps Agencies: Robert Pyper............................. 19 3 Next Steps and Parliamentary Scrutiny: Barry Winetrobe 33 Part II: The Process of Scrutiny 4 The Treasury Committee and Next Steps Agencies: Philip Giddings........................... 55 5 Departmental Select Committees and the Next Steps Programme: David Natzler and Paul Silk 71 6 Financial Accountability: Agencies and Audit: Priscilla Baines........................... 95 7 Members of Parliament and Agencies: Parliamentary Questions: Paul Evans...................... 119 8 Agencies and the Ombudsman: Philip Giddings....... 139 Part III: Case Studies 9 The Environment Agencies: George Jones and June Burnham with Robert Elgie, 155 10 The Department of Social Security and its Agencies: Patricia Greer, 191 11 Accountability and the Employment Service Agency: Norman Lewis........................... 203 Part IV: Review and Conclusions 12 Next Steps to Where? Philip Giddings 221 v

vi Contents Bibliography................................ 243 Index 253

Preface This book is based upon the work done by a study group set up by the Study of Parliament Group (SPG) in 1990 to monitor the consequences for Parliament of the Government's Next Steps Initiative, As convenor of the group and editor of the book I have been grateful for the continuing support and encouragement of the SPG and particularly its Executive Committee in seeing the work through to completion. That support has not been merely moral support. The SPG Executive has generously funded the travelling expenses of members of the study group as well as some of the costs of the preparation of the book for publication. For that we are particularly grateful. To avoid misunderstanding I should, nevertheless, make clear at the outset that the SPG does not bear any responsibility for the facts stated or opinions expressed in this book. That same disclaimer also applies to those who generously gave of their time to talk to the study group and answer our questions about their experience of the Next Steps programme: Don Brereton of the Prime Minister's Efficiency Unit; Mike Goodson, Assistant Auditor General; Giles Radice, MP, of the Treasury and Civil Service Committee; and Peter Ryder, Director of Operations at the Meteorological Office. Peter Kemp, as he then was, gave an illuminating address to the SPG annual meeting in 1991. Priscilla Baines acted as our scribe for these meetings with her customary efficiency and has been a continuing source of encouragement to me as convenor of the group. To monitor the consequences of development of a programme like the Next Steps means that time must be allowed to reveal what those consequences are. The research, and the book which is based upon it, has therefore inevitably been a long time in the making. I would like, therefore, to pay tribute to the patience and resilience of my colleagues in keeping faith with the project. Most of the initial group who expressed interest in the study have remained with us and contributed to this volume, many of them whilst carrying out heavy commitments elsewhere. The list of contributors is appended to this preface. I am grateful to them all. I should also like to pay particular tribute to those who have assisted in the task of converting our findings into this book. Sheila Baxter, secretary in the Department of Politics at the University of Reading, did much of the early word processing and Lisa Hasell has brought those early drafts into camera-ready form with remarkable facility. Simon Patrick gave invaluable help with preparation of the tables and other aspects of the design of the vii

viii Preface book and Paul Evans has generously assisted in proof reading and arranging for preparation of the index, for which we are indebted to Sue Martin. In the Preface to a book about accountability it is more than ever necessary to make clear who is responsible for what. Broadly speaking, as editor I take responsibility for all matters of editorial policy, within the guidelines helpfully provided by Macmillan, including the structure and balance of the book, as well as (of course) for those chapters which bear my name. For the content of the other chapters, the particular authors, individually or jointly as the case may be, take responsibility. If that leaves the reader with some lingering doubt about precisely who is responsible for particular passages or words in the text, then the reader has been well initiated into the issues raised by a study of accountability. Reading, October 1994 Philip Giddings

Contributors Priscilla Baines is Deputy Librarian of the House of Commons. She joined the Economic Affairs Section of the Research Division of the Library in 1968, became head of section in 1977, head of the Science and Environment Section in 1988 and then Head of the Parliamentary Division. Her publications include contributions to the Study of Parliament Group's Parliament and Economic Affairs (1980) and to G. Drewry (ed.), The New Select Committees: a Study of the 1979 Reforms (1989). Gavin Drewry is Professor of Public Administration and Head of the Department of Social Policy and Social Science, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London. He has been a member of the Study of Parliament Group since 1974 and written or edited several books and many book chapters and academic articles on subjects mainly related to parliamentary practice and procedure, the legislative process, publiclaw and public administration. His books include: as co-author (with Louis Blom-Cooper), Final Appeal: A Study of the House of Lords in its Judicial Capacity, (Clarendon Press, 1972), currently being revised; coauthor (with Ivor Burton), Legislation and Public Policy (Longman, 2nd edition, 1981); editor and principal contributor, The New Select Committees: a Study of the 1979 Reforms (Oxford University Press, for the Study of Parliament Group, 2nd edition, 1989); co-author (with Tony Butcher), The Civil Service Today (Blackwell, 2nd edition, 1991). Paul Evans is currently a Clerk in the Public Bill Office of the House of Commons. He has been a Clerk in the House of Commons since 1981 and has worked for the Energy and Health Committees as well as in the Table Office (which deals with Parliamentary Questions) and the Journal Office. Philip Giddings lectures on Politics at the University of Reading. He is author of Marketing Boards and Ministers (Saxon House, 1974) and a number of articles on Parliament and public agencies. He has contributed to several Study of Parliament Group publications, including The New Select Committees: a Study of the 1979 Reforms (Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 1989) and Parliamentary Questions (Oxford University Press, 1993), and published articles on the Parliamentary and Health Service Commissioners. ix

x Contributors Patricia Greer is now a senior consultant in the public sector group of Price Waterhouse. Previously she was a Research Officer at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Policy, University of Bath, where she carried out a three-year study of Next Steps Agencies funded by the Leverhulme Trust. She was formerly a Senior Analyst in the National Audit Office. Her publications include articles on executive agencies in Public Administration, Spring 1992 and Autumn 1993, and Transforming Central Government (Open University Press, 1994). George Jones is Professor of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has written many articles and chapters on the British prime minister and cabinet, Parliament, public administration and local government. He has given evidence to select committees about their role and about Next Steps agencies. He is the author of Borough Politics (Macmillan, 1969), editor of ~st European Prime Ministers (Frank Cass, 1991), and co-author of Herbert Morrison (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973), The Case for Local Government (Allen and Unwin, 1983) and The Government of London (J. Rowntree Foundation, 1991). He is a member of the National Consumer Council and chairman of its Public Services Committee. Nonnan Lewis is Professor of Public Law at the University of Sheffield. He has published widely in the public law field, including (with Ian Harden) The Noble Lie-the British Constitution and the Rule of Law (1986). David Natzler has been a member of the Department of the Clerk of the House of Commons since 1975 and is currently a Deputy Principal Clerk. He was Clerk to the Race Relations and Immigration Sub-Committee of the Home Affairs Committee, 1979 to 1981; Clerk to the Social Services Committee, 1981 to 1985; and, after four years in the Table Office, has been Clerk to the Defence Committee since 1989. His publications include chapters in other Study of Parliament Group publications and the latest (14th) edition of Guide to the Palace of ~stminster.

Contributors xi Robert Pyper is Senior Lecturer in Public Administration at Glasgow Caledonian University. He was formerly Thtor in Politics at the University of Leicester. His Ph. D. thesis (Leicester 1987) was on 'The Doctrine of Individual Ministerial Responsibility in British Government: Theory and Practice in a New Regime of Parliamentary Accountability'. He is author of The Evolving Civil Service (Longman, 1991) and numerous journal articles covering a range of topics in the field of UK government and politics. He is Assistant Editor of Talking Politics, the journal of the Politics Association. Paul Silk has been a member of the Department of the Clerk of the House of Commons since 1979. He is now a Deputy Principal Clerk in the Public Bill Office, and from 1989 to 1993 was Clerk of the Home Affairs Select Committee and prior to that of the Energy Committee. He is author of How Parliament WJrks' (Longmans, 2nd edition, 1989) and contributor to Parliament and International Affairs (Open University Press, 1991) and Parliament and Information (Dartmouth, 1991) as well as to a number of journals of Parliamentary interest. Barry Winetrobe is a member of the Research Division of the House of Commons Library. His research interests are in the field of constitutional (especially Parliamentary) development. From 1991 to 1992 he lectured in Public Law at the University of Aberdeen where he did research into the legal and political aspects of local government finance and produced an article on the history of the poll tax, published in July 1992 issue of Parliamentary Affairs.