BBC: Cut in ministers urged to 'strengthen Parliament'

It will be interesting to see what the Coalition Government does with this proposal, reported today in BBC News Online:

MPs are calling for a reduction in the number of ministers after the next election, to "strengthen the independence" of Parliament.

The cross-party Public Administration Select Committee said the size of government should fall in line with the cut in MP numbers planned after 2015. Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, the committee's chairman, said many ministers were not "using their time effectively".

The Commons rejected the idea of a ministerial cut in a recent vote.

The size of the Commons will fall by 50 to 600 MPs after the next election, due in 2015, under government plans to reduce the cost of politics. But the committee is worried that the influence of the so-called "payroll vote" - the number of ministers and parliamentary aides required to support the government in Commons votes - will rise if there is not a commensurate fall in the number of ministers.

The cross-party committee says there should be eight fewer ministers after the next election and is urging a reduction from 46 to 26 in the number of parliamentary private secretaries (PPSs) - ministerial aides who represent the lowest rung of government.

Mr Jenkin said the proposal - which would limit PPS numbers to one per government department - was "very modest and easily achievable".

Read the rest. Interesting for us vis à vis the relative strength between Parliament and the Executive, the structure of the Executive branch of government and the role of MPs within Parliament.