Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

Recommendation 25

25

Sanctioning individual ministers for Ministerial Code breaches remains problematic due to shared responsibility

Conclusion
For most breaches under the Ministerial Code in relation to paragraph 9.1, it is difficult to conceive of the circumstances that would result in sanctions against an individual minister, given that the Code specifies the Prime Minister as being a significant part of the decision-making process and therefore bearing at least shared responsibility. We see no easy fix for this conundrum. However, the House itself has a range of options to hold ministers to account, including its range of disciplinary powers in cases of contempt. (Conclusion, Paragraph 79)