1 INTRODUCTION
1. Upon becoming Prime Minister in 2007, Gordon Brown
said that he would build a "government that uses all the
talents" by appointing people from outside Parliament to
be ministers. These ministers became known as 'goats' ('government
of all the talents'). This report examines the appointment of
ministers from outside Parliament. It also looks at the ad hoc
appointment by government of prominent people to be its public
face on a particular policy area—so-called 'tsars'.
2. We recently completed a separate inquiry into
external appointments to senior posts within the Civil Service
and our conclusions were published in Outsiders and Insiders:
External Appointments to the Senior Civil Service.[1]
This Committee and its predecessors have also undertaken extensive
work on the role of special advisers within government.[2]
3. We took oral evidence from four people with extensive
experience and knowledge of central government: Rt Hon Sir John
Major, Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997, Lord Turnbull, Cabinet
Secretary from 2002 to 2005, Jonathan Powell, Chief of Staff to
the Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007, and Professor Anthony King,
of the University of Essex. We also took evidence from three people
who had been brought into the House of Lords to take up ministerial
posts: Rt Hon Lord Adonis, Secretary of State for Transport, Admiral
Lord West of Spithead, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
at the Home Office, and Professor Lord Darzi of Denham, former
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Health.
We also received written evidence on the recruitment of government
'tsars'. We would like to thank all those who gave evidence and
the House of Commons Department of Information Services, in particular
the House of Commons Library's Parliament and Constitution Centre,
for their assistance.
4. During our evidence, several of our witnesses
raised concerns about the increasing number of holders of ministerial
and quasi-ministerial posts. These issues have been raised with
us during other inquiries and we intend to address them in a short
report soon.
1 Public Administration Select Committee, Seventh Report
of Session 2009-10, Outsiders and insiders: Outside Appointments
to the Senior Civil Service, HC 241 Back
2
For example: Public Administration Select Committee, Fourth Report
of Session 2000-01, Special Advisers: Boon or Bane?, HC 293; First
Report of Session 2003-04, A Draft Civil Service Bill: Completing
the Reform, HC 128-I; Tenth Report of Session 2007-08, Constitutional
Renewal: Draft Bill and White Paper, HC 499 Back
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