One Government.
One Legal Authority.
CHANGE will bring Government departments under a single overarching legal authority, ending departmental fiefdoms and restoring clear democratic accountability.
Government should act as one Government.
Departments should not operate as separate power centres with competing structures, interpretations and interests. The public should be able to see clearly who is responsible, who made a decision and who is accountable for it.
End Departmental Fiefdoms
CHANGE will remove the fragmented structure that allows departments to operate too independently of the wider Government.
One Legal Identity
Government departments will operate beneath a single overarching legal structure.
One Direction
Government policy will be set democratically and applied consistently across departments.
One Accountability Chain
Responsibility will be clear from the elected Minister through to the department delivering the decision.
Ministers Decide. Civil Servants Advise.
Senior civil servants provide expertise, administration and professional advice. They should not determine the political direction of Government.
Ministers will make decisions, defend those decisions publicly and accept responsibility for the performance of their departments.
Clear Responsibility
Too often responsibility becomes blurred between departments, boards, officers and Ministers. CHANGE will make accountability simple and visible.
Stop Government Passing Responsibility Around
A single legal structure will make it harder for departments to avoid responsibility by pointing to another body, process or interpretation.
The public should not have to navigate a maze of departmental boundaries to find out who is responsible. Government must answer as Government.
Restore Democratic Control
Permanent officials should not become more powerful than the elected representatives who are accountable to the public.
CHANGE will rebalance Government so that professional advice remains strong, but final political authority rests with those the public can remove at an election.
Government will serve the people — not itself.
The people elect the Government. The Government must remain answerable to the people.