Select committee: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

Recommendation 4

First Report - The role and status of the Prime Minister’s Office Published 9 Jun 2021 Paragraph 42

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee The role and status of the Prime Minister’s Office All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

Recommendation (the committee's words)

We do not consider the status of the Office of Prime Minister as a business unit to be an accurate reflection of the role that it plays. Yet it currently operates with even less transparency that this status suggests. For so long as the Government maintains that it is a business unit of the Cabinet Office, the Government should report on its activities in the Annual Report and Accounts as it does for its other business units. And in its response to Parliamentary Questions, it should provide information as it does for its other business units.

From: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, First Report - The role and status of the Prime Minister’s Office (HC 67), paragraph 42, 9 June 2021

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 21 September 2021 (deadline 9 August 2021).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government's response sets out existing arrangements for the Prime Minister's Office, Cabinet Office and Special Advisers, says there is "scope for further consideration" of the issues raised, and does not commit to the structural or reporting changes the Committee proposed.

On separating Prime Ministerial and Cabinet support, the Government says it "would potentially be misleading" to do so and that it "would be difficult to comprehensively delineate" which business units support which.
On transparency, the response says narrative sections in the Annual Report and Accounts "are not intended to cover all, or even most, business units", and that the Prime Minister's Office is one of many without one.
The Government says "We agree" that the benefits of improved cooperation across the centre can be achieved through "more and sustained collective working", and describes this as "already happening", citing Outcome Delivery Plans.
On Special Advisers, it says the Code of Conduct "provides clarity", that CRAGA 2010 means it is "not possible" for them to have played an executive role, and that Ministers "remain fully accountable" for their actions.

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