Responsibility in Government

Abstract

Much scepticism is expressed about the validity of ministerial responsibility in the modem constitution, and the Scott Report has done nothing to dispel this. The time seems ripe for a general review of the role of responsibility in the political system, placing ministerial responsibility in its context as one element in a supporting structure for responsible democratic government. In a broad view of governmental responsibility in a democracy like ours we may see it as owed not only to Parliament but to the public, to the law, and to individual citizens. A closer examination requires us to identify those upon whom responsibilities actually rest and those to whom they must answer. We have to take account not only of departmental ministers but of their ministerial subordinates, officials in departments and agencies, and non-departmental public bodies. In focusing on departmental ministers we should give due weight to their legal responsibility, recognising the expansion and renewed vitality of judicial review. The responsi bility of ministers to Parliament appears as a cluster of obligations, the mainte nance of which requires continual vigilance. A ministerial obligation to resign is peripheral to the everyday striving for accountability, but is not to be dismissed as having no reality.