8 Structures of power
78. We asked our witnesses whether the structures
of power beneath the Prime Minister—by which we meant the
support he or she is provided with by civil servants and special
advisers—were sufficiently clear and accountable.
79. The Prime Minister is supported by the Prime
Minister's Office, which has traditionally been regarded as part
of the Cabinet Office.In a letter to us on 28 April 2014, Sir
Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary stated: "The total
number of Civil Servants currently working in the Prime Minister's
Office is 184.6."This includes one Director-General, two
Directors, and 16 Deputy Directors.Sir Jeremy added: "The
total number of special advisers currently working for the Prime
Minister is 26.[94]Professor
Hazell noted that the Prime Minister's staffing complement is
"by comparison with other similar-sized countries, remarkably
small."He stated: "That, in turn, makes it difficult
for the Prime Minister himself to lead on more than a very few
policy areas, because he just does not have the staff support
to enable him to do so."[95]
80. Sir Jeremy Heywood commented in his letter to
us that details of civil servants working in the Prime Minister's
office were available online, as were the number and costs of
special advisers.Despite this, there is a lack of clarity about
support structures for the Prime Minister and it arises principally
because the relationship between the Prime Minister's Office and
the Cabinet Office is confusing.
81. In January 2010, the House of Lords Constitution
Committee published a report on The Cabinet Office and the
Centre of Government, which considered, among other things,
the way in which civil service and special adviser support was
provided to the Prime Minister.Its central recommendation was
that "structures of accountability should mirror structures
of power".[96]However,
it could not establish a clear picture of how those structures
of power operated in practice.It commented:"Formally defining
the administrative relationship between the Cabinet Office and
the Prime Minister's Office is not simple, as there are no official
documents codifying it." It continued:
Sir Gus O'Donnell [at the time, the Cabinet Secretary]
asserted that "there is one Cabinet Office of which Number
10 is a subset". This description of the relationship between
the Cabinet Office and Prime Minister's Office was not reflected
in other evidence that we received. It conflicts, for instance,
with the statement of Lords Armstrong, Butler and Wilson, that
the two offices are "functionally distinct". It is open
to doubt whether Sir Gus O'Donnell's description of the Prime
Minister's Office as a "subset" and a "business
unit" goes beyond what Sir Richard Mottram told us, that
"Number 10 is part of the Cabinet Office for public expenditure
planning purposes", and whether it accurately describes how
the centre operates in practice. We believe that the nature of
this relationship should be clarified by the Cabinet Office, and
should be reflected in government publications, which appear to
suggest that the two offices are independent institutions.[97]
As if to illustrate this confusion, on the page listing
Departments on the Government's Gov.uk website, the Prime Minister's
Office is listed twice: once separately from the Cabinet Office,
and once as a part of the Cabinet Office.[98]
82. In evidence to our inquiry, Professor Foley described
the structures of power beneath the Prime Minister as "utterly
opaque."[99]Professor
Hazell described the Prime Minister's relationship with the Cabinet
Office under Tony Blair as follows:
Tony Blair, when he was Prime Minister, in his
first term, significantly changed his own description of the Prime
Minister's role and functions, in particular in relation to his
leadership of the Cabinet Office which up to that time had been
viewed, including by itself, as providing collective support through
the Cabinet Secretariat to the Cabinet as a whole. It became more
directly an office and set of units that provided support, in
particular, to the Prime Minister, so a Prime Minister who wants
to extend his staffing support can look next door to the Cabinet
Office to do so.[100]
Dan Corry told us: "The Cabinet Office are always
split.Are they there to help manage the Cabinet Committees and
all the rest of it, to help the Prime Minister see his agenda
through, and to what extent are they the honest broker between
all the different departments?"[101]
83. One way forward would be to create a Prime Minister's
Department—either as a separate entity or as a formal department
combined with the Cabinet Office.Lord Hennessy believed that,
in practice, there was already a Prime Minister's Department,
but it was simply not referred to in those terms:
I am reluctant for a Prime Minister's Department
to exist, being a traditionalist, but it does. It is there. It
is the department that dare not speak its name. Mr Cameron was
very shrewd. He got Oliver Letwin in to do the clever thinking
stuff and Francis Maude to be Minister for the Civil Service and
a lot more, to Cabinet rank, though not full Cabinet members,
some hybrid position they have. That is a Prime Minister's Department.[102]
He suggested that if the existence of a Prime Minister's
Department were acknowledged and formalised, there could be a
Select Committee to scrutinise its work and described this as
"a great advantage".[103]Dr
Heffernan, giving evidence alongside Lord Hennessy,commented:
A Select Committee that looked at Downing Street
and the Prime Minister I think might within Parliament over time
develop the authority and power that the Public Accounts Committee
has with regards to public administration….we might as well
face up to the fact that it is a department whether we like it
or not.Therefore, to formalise that would give Parliament the
ability to have some oversight of it.[104]
He agreed that such a Committee should oversee the
use of prerogative powers.[105]
84. It could be argued that the creation of a Prime
Minister's Departmentwould represent a move away from Cabinet
government.Indeed, Lord Hennessy's comments about being a traditionalist
and therefore reluctant for a Prime Minister's Department to exist
draw attention to this point.Dr Nicholas Allen commented: "If
a full-blown Prime Minister's Department were to be created, akin,
perhaps to the German Chancellery, then this would amount to a
major rebalancing between collegial government and Prime Ministerial
authority, in favour of the latter."[106]However,
a combined Department for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Office
could be one way of preserving collegiate government.Dr Bennister
stated: "The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in
Australia has shown that a formal department (as opposed to a
department 'in all but name' in the UK) can be compatible with
collective responsibility and functioning cabinet government."[107]
85. The current confusion about the nature of
the relationship between the Prime Minister's Office and the Cabinet
Office is unhelpful.The Government should address this by considering
the creation ofa combined Department for the Prime Minister and
the Cabinet, with a departmental Select Committee specifically
to scrutinise that Department.
94 Written evidence from the Cabinet Office Back
95
Q94 Back
96
House of Lords Constitution Committee, Fourth Report of Session
2009-10,The Cabinet Office and the Centre of Government, HL Paper
30, para 8 Back
97
The Cabinet Office and the Centre of Government,para 24 Back
98
www.gov.uk/government/organisations Back
99
Professor Michael Foley written evidence Back
100
Q94 Back
101
Q149 Back
102
Q317 [Lord Hennessy] Back
103
Q317 [Lord Hennessy] Back
104
Q317 [Dr Heffernan] Back
105
Q318 [Dr Heffernan] Back
106
Dr Nicholas Allen written evidence Back
107
Dr Mark Bennister written evidence Back
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