6. The provision of behavioural guidance to Cabinet ministers dates back to the Second World War, when ministers were issued with ad hoc instructions from the Prime Minister. These guidelines were first collected into a single document (known as Questions of Procedure for Ministers, or QPM) by Clement Attlee, the then Prime Minister, who distributed the document to incoming ministers in 1945. Since then, the document has been continuously revised and extended by incoming Prime Ministers. Originally 65 paragraphs long, QPM had doubled in size to 135 paragraphs by 1997, when it was restyled as the Ministerial Code. By 2005, it had grown to 173 paragraphs. The Code has also been published, ever since the decision to do so was taken by John Major as Prime Minister in 1992.

7. Gordon Brown has emulated his predecessors by approving his own version of the Code within a few days of becoming Prime Minister.[8] Unlike many, however, he also took the opportunity to revise and substantially refocus the Code. The Green Paper on "The Governance of Britain" set out the Prime Minister's position:

The Ministerial Code outlines the behaviour that is expected of Ministers. Until now, it has developed over decades as an amalgam of good practice, but it has become outdated and unwieldy. The Prime Minister has therefore tightened the Code.[9]

8. In practice, this tightening of the code has meant removing much of the detailed procedural guidance in the Code, leaving a document which is more clearly based around the principles of ministerial conduct. The shortened Code, now down to a relatively modest 119 paragraphs, is divided into ten chapters, each headed by a statement of a general principle such as "Ministers of the Crown are expected to behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety".[10] Although many of the provisions underneath these principles are the same as in previous Codes, there has been noticeable trimming; for example, the 2005 Code contained specific guidance for ministers with partnerships, directorships and membership of Lloyds which has not been reproduced in the latest edition. Similarly, the details relating to the supply of parliamentary publications and money resolutions have been removed from the Ministers and Parliament Section, while the chapter on Ministerial Pensions has been taken out in its entirety. A summary of the changes in the 2007 Code was provided for us by Catherine McGrath and is appended to this report.[11] While not all of the procedural guidance has been removed - it is still against the terms of the Code to make important policy announcements on the Today programme while Parliament is in session - it seems fair to say that the revised Code is more principle-based than previous versions.

9. We applaud the Prime Minister's decision to revise the Ministerial Code and to focus it on questions of general principle rather than detailed guidance on procedure. Our predecessor Committee recommended this course of action in 2001, and it has also been recommended more than once by the Committee on Standards in Public Life.[12] Procedural guidance is necessary, but the Ministerial Code is not the place for it. A principle-based Code should be simpler for ministers to use and simpler for Parliament and the public to judge them by.

Ministerial interests

10. One novel aspect of the 2007 Code, as we have seen, is that an annual statement will be published covering ministers' relevant outside interests. Ministers have considerable powers beyond those of other Members of Parliament, for example in the awarding of contracts, and it has long been recognised that the information required for the Register of Members' Interests is not sufficient for ministers (not all of whom, in any event, are Members of the House of Commons). There is a clear public interest in transparency over the personal interests of ministers. However, although ministers have been required by the Ministerial Code to declare their interests to their permanent secretaries, there has not previously been any requirement to make this information public. We welcome the Prime Minister's decision to publish a list of ministerial interests. The list will be an important safeguard against impropriety.

11. The list of ministerial interests will be published by the new Independent Adviser, who will also be available—as the title suggests—to provide advice to ministers and permanent secretaries on what interests should be declared and what constitutes a conflict of interest. We have not examined whether such independent advice is necessary. However, the lack of such advice does not strike us as having been the major gap in the regulation of ministerial conduct. We do not believe the public is greatly exercised by how ministers obtain advice on avoiding conflicts of interest. The primary concern around the Code has never been its content. Nor has it been a lack of advice for ministers on compliance. The major issue remains what happens when it appears that the Code has been breached.

9   The Governance of Britain, Cm 7170, p 39 Back

10   Cabinet Office, Ministerial Code, July 2007, p 1 Back

11   Appendix 1 Back

12   Public Administration Select Committee, Third Report of Session 2000-01, The Ministerial Code: Improving the Rule Book, HC 235; Ninth Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Defining the Boundaries within the Executive: Ministers, Special Advisers and the permanent Civil Service, Cm 5775, April 2003

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