Stuart Weir & Andrew Blick (Cambridge & London, Democratic Audit): Tony Wright MP has given Gordon Brown a great opportunity to act fast and dispel the idea that he is a ditherer. His Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) has just produced a report on cash-for-honours: the report recommends that the Prime Minister should cut the marketable value of a peerage as a political honour, by divorcing it from a seat in the House of Lords. The report also calls for a ban on 'tax exile lords'; measures for greater transparency in the honours list; and a new anti-corruption law. All very worthy. The committee has noted that all of these reforms could be implemented immediately by the Prime Minister without need for parliamentary approval. But therein lies the rub.
Of course the Prime Minister could act fast and on his own. But this is because he would be able to act under the Royal Prerogative, which permits ministers and officials to act without any requirement to seek the approval of elected representatives, or even keep them informed. As well as bestowing honours the executive can, as is by now well known, use the prerogative to make war, conduct diplomacy, ratify treaties, issue passports and recognise states. Under the chairmanship of Tony Wright PASC has conducted a long and honourable campaign to place the prerogative on a statutory basis, making Parliament the ultimate authority. The government is now committed to this general principle, but another PASC report which appeared on Monday demonstrates the importance and scale of the task of reforming the prerogative completely.
In it the committee exposes the extent to which prime ministers, using the prerogative, are able to run the Civil Service and reorganise the machinery of government on a whim. Controversial decisions which stand out include the sudden abolition of the Lord Chancellor's Department and the creation of a Ministry of Justice (absorbing some responsibilities from the Home Office), the merger of Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue, and the evolution of the database state. So PASC's solution - that Gordon Brown can act at once - is part of a wider problem. Voters have a right to expect that Parliament should be able to hold the Prime Minister and his government to account for their stewardship of the Civil Service, and any changes that they make to these important governing arrangements. Gordon Brown has pledged to place the Civil Service on a statutory basis, which would make Parliament the ultimate authority. But he must at the same time place the government's control of the machinery of government on a statutory basis as well.
