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Governance in Government: A Modest Proposal
Author(s) -
MONCK NICK
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
the political quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.373
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-923X
pISSN - 0032-3179
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-923x.2005.00682.x
Subject(s) - cabinet (room) , corporate governance , parliament , public administration , government (linguistics) , publication , private sector , public sector , business , public relations , political science , accounting , law , politics , engineering , finance , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy
This article recalls evidence in the Hutton and Butler reports about changes in decision‐making procedures in government, including the role of Cabinet and of the Cabinet Office in supporting collective decisions; and the failure to circulate papers on Iraq to Cabinet or to use a cabinet committee. The government`s response has been largely intelligence‐specific and evades the wider criticisms. This article makes the modest proposal that Parliament should impose standards of governance on governments that broadly match those already imposed, with government support, on the boards of private sector companies (based on the Combined Code of Corporate Governance and the Companies Act 1985). It would make sense for the Select Committee on Public Administration to work out and publish a specific proposal. The government would be asked to report after a year on action taken to improve governance standards. This proposal should be pursued after the election.