Individual Ministerial Responsibility

• Individual Ministerial Responsibility is when ministers are held accountable for the performance of their department and their personal integrity + conduct. If this is not upheld they should resign.
• Ministers are responsible for giving accurate and truthful information to parliament. If this is not done they need to update it immediately or if it is too late they have to resign.
• Poor personal conduct includes bullying and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace. For example, (priti patel and dominic rob)
• The Prime Minister enforces ministerial code as the PM is the Judge, Jury and Executioner. They decide if personal contact has been broken or performance has been poor.
• One downside to the PM enforcing this, is that they cannot be held accountable by any 3rd party sources. For example, Boris Johnson wasn't held accountable for Party Gate.
• One flaw to individual ministerial responsibility is that it can lead to a lack of accountability from government ministers as they can shift the blame to Civil servants. For example, in 2023, Suella Braverman sent an email to Conservative party supporters blaming ''Left-wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour party for the failure of HER department to stop channel crossings.
• Another flaw to individual ministerial responsibility is that it can lead to a lack of accountability from government ministers. For Example, the failure of the exam algorithm in 2020. The head of Ofqual, Sally Collier resigned whilst the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, didn't resign.
• Boris Johnson changed the ministerial code in 2022 after the Party Gate scandal broke out to prevent himself and his ministers from resigning, as they misled parliament. He weakened individual responsibility preventing them from resigning instead having to publicly apologise and accept a reduction in pay.
• Examples of ministers resigning due to individual ministerial responsibility. Amber Rudd resigned in 2018 she mislead the Home Affairs select committee as she said she was unaware of any deportation removal targets despite having documents proving it.
• Examples of ministers resigning due to individual ministerial responsibility. Matt Hancock in 2021 resigned after a video of him having an affair with a colleague, Breaching his own departments COVID regulations and personal misconduct. He apology was originally accepted by Boris Johnson but later resigned after scrutiny and backlash from the media. This shows IMR is important and holds ministers accountable however, The PM originally accepting the apology shows weakness in IMR.
• IMR does not remain important as:

  • It depends on the honour of ministers as they are unlikely to resign if it will affect their career or pay.
  • Dependant on the PM, PM doesn't like to force resignations on their ally ministers. PM can also have low standards for performance and personal conduct. e.g Johnson on Hancock.
• IMR does not remain important as:

  • Media and public backlash is the main driver of ministers resigning. NOT the ministerial code. eg matt hancock
  • Near complete breakdown from the changes from Johnson, creating a precedent that has permanently weakening the convention e.g the delay in firing Sunak's delay of firing Raab despite multiple allegations of bullying.
• IMR does remain important as:

  • Johnson was an anomaly as his standards and has become important again e.g Truss firing Braverman and in the future a Keir Starmer led govt would be enforced.
• Potential reforms:

  • Give the power of Judge, Jury and Executioner to an independent body and take the power out of PM hands, but highly unlikely as it would involve a PM voluntarily giving up their powers.