Slimming down the government is one of those phrases, along with ‘reducing middle management’ thrown around a great deal often with little concrete behind it. Indeed the story of recent governments has been that of near unending expansion. As the creation of a portfolio has become a standard way of making a statement of intent, not dissimilar to the rise of pointlessly legislating. This is something that needs to change. Partly to save costs, partly to reduce the Prime Minister’s power of patronage (the expansion of the payroll vote is a major reason behind the vast number of Parliamentary-Under Secretaries) and partly because these powers should be moving out of Whitehall altogether to democratic regional assemblies. Incidentally it’s because of this last point that several government departments look like anachronisms. The Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales long had their power and funding shift to their respective devolved assemblies, leaving them rather a hollow shell.
So here are my proposals for reducing the number of Ministerial Positions, concrete, and because of that concreteness in all likelihood flawed, to reduce the size of government:
Black = Cabinet Minister
Purple = Junior Minister
Green = Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
(-1) after a position has indicated two positions have been merged, or where there were previously multiple positions of the same role it has been reduced. (-1) with no position indicates an elimination. (+1) indicates the creation of a position, generally a Ministerial position to take the role previously held by a Secretary of State.
Prime Minister
Minister for the Cabinet Office
Minister without Portfolio
Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office
(-1)
Business, Industry and Skills + Culture Media and Sport (-1)
Minister of State for Universities, Science and Skills (-1)
Minister of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Minister of State for Trade and Investment
(-1)
PuSoS for for IP and the Internet (-1)
PuSoS for Culture, Media and Sport
(-1)
Communities and Local Government
Minister of State for Housing and Planning
(-1)
PuSoS for Communities and Local Govt. (-1)
PuSoS for Local Growth
Defence
Minister of State for the Armed Forces
Minister of State for Procurement
(-1)
PuSoS for Personnel, Welfare and Veterans
PuSoS for the Reserves
Education
Minister of State for Schools
Minister of State for Children and Families
PuSoS for Childcare and Education
PuSoS for Women and Equalities
(-1)
Energy, Climate Change and the Environment (-1)
Minister of State for the Environment (+1)
Minister of State for Energy
Minister of State for Farming and Food.
PuSoS for Climate Change and the Environment (-1)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office + International Development (-1)
Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Minister of State for International Development (-1)
Minister of State for Europe and NATO
(-1)
PuSoS for the Americas and South Asia (+1)
Pusos for the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia
PuSoS for Africa and the Caribbean
(-1)
Health
Minister of State for Community and Social Care
Home Office
Minister of State for Crime and Policing
Minister of State for Security
Minister of State for Immigration
PuSoS for Counter-Extremism
(-1)
Justice
PuSoS for the Courts and Legal Aid
PuSoS for Prisons
PuSoS for Human Rights
Devolved Affairs (NI, Scot & Wales) (-2)
Minister of State for Scotland (+1)
Advocate General for Scotland
Minister of State for Wales (+1)
Minister of State for Northern Ireland
(-1)
Transport
PuSoS for Infrastructure
PuSoS for Transport
(-1)
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
Commercial Secretary to the Treasury
Work and Pensions
Minister of State for Employment
Minister of State for Welfare
Minister of State for Pensions
Total
Secretaries of State (-5)
Ministers (-3)
Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State (-9)
Total salary savings alone would be well over half a million pounds. Not to mention that this would also accompany a parallel slimming down of the civil service, which would result in even greater savings.
Perhaps what I’ve put forth is not the answer, but someone at least should be asking the question, how will we actually reduce the size of our government?
Squiffy Liberalism 
Interesting stuff. Any thoughts of Local Government? Number of Councillors – and structure (Regional/Unitary/County/District & Parish/Community Councils). I belief (tell me if I’m off the mark here) that we in the UK have FEWER elected local reps than France (and Germany??), and many other EU countries. Un-paid Parish Councillors IMO provide both fantastic value & vital ‘plug in’ into Councils/local democray.
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On the whole I’d say I think unitary authorities are the best system (it’s also is the case now that meteropolitan boroughs effectively operate as unitary authorities), though I wouldn’t want to try and force change on the non-metropolitan counties from above. The problem you often get at the local level is that many services (indeed many of the major services) are run as part of joint agreements with oversight boards, with little transparency, accountability, and with that little power to actually provide proper oversight. The solution we’ve been offered repeatedly to that has been service accountable elected members, the Conservative’s Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales, and the SNP’s Elected Health Boards in Scotland. The problem that causes them to fail is always the same, little public interest, and extremely low turnout.
I don’t know if fewer *local* elected representatives is true, however fewer elected representatives total is indeed accurate for both of those countries and most others, for a number of reasons (the less significant of which is the HoL, lacking even indirect elections) but the principal reason is that we’re lacking a layer of government. The French have regions, departments (local authorities), and communes (parishes), Germany has Lander (state) and municipalities.
I do think that the solution to that first problem, and in order to devolve significant amounts of power and funds from Westminster (more than would be possible to do so to city-region mayors) is directly elected regional assemblies (as in France and Germany), and most countries as it happens. This can be accompanied by a reduction in central government staff at Whitehall, along with the number of Ministers and MPs.
I would agree with you on the contribution of parish councils, if I remember correctly there has been a significant expansion in their number over the past few years, including the first few being established in Greater London where previously they were banned.
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i believe this will reduce government spending
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