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By Ned Simons - 17th November 2010
The one that attached himself to me in a clam-like fashion when I was at the Foreign Office was a darn nuisance and I couldn't shake him off
ex-MP Chris Mullin on PPS'
The government has confirmed the names of 46 backbenchers who have been appointed ministerial aides, amid accusations that the executive is gaining excessive power over Parliament.
Ministers have been under pressure to make the list of parliamentary private secretaries (PPSs) more transparent following complaints that the details were too hard to find.
While they are not paid more than the normal MPs salary, PPS' do form part of the so-called payroll vote.
They are obliged to vote with the government alongside ministers or surrender the position.
Tory MP Charles Walker recently complained that the government was handing out so many of the jobs that it was "impossible to get a list because the library can't keep up".
A member of the administration committee, he dismissed the role as having no legitimate role in the effective running of government.
"It does seem to me that the skill a PPS needs more than anything is to be able to fill up the ministerial water jug," he said.
"I mean, you see grown-up people coming into Parliament and filling up the ministerial water jug.
"And the idea that you need PPSs in the Tea Room - I see a lot of ministers in the Tea Room; they're rather partial to a cup of tea and an egg and bacon sandwich, but it is just a fiction that these people have any role with regard to government business."
Among the ministerial aides are Nick Clegg's chief parliamentary aide Norman Lamb and well-connected Conservative backbencher Nick Boles.
Appearing before a Commons committee last month former Labour MP and political diarist Chris Mullin warned that junior ministers did not need a PPS.
"The one that attached himself to me in a clam-like fashion when I was at the Foreign Office was a darn nuisance and I couldn't shake him off," he said.
Mullin warned that governments appoint PPSs as a deliberate ploy to minimise critical activity in the Chamber.
"What they do is, they plant questions, because they do not have enough to do," he said.
"Then they forget to tell the hapless minister what supplementary they've planted and you'd find out in the Tea Room on your way to the Chamber.
"So, there is scope for real reduction there. You need more of these folk on the backbenches asking questions, not inside the tent."
Not all MPs are critical of the role of the PPS.
Conservative Tony Baldry has said effective ministerial aides act as a crucial conduit between backbenchers and government.
"It's not always going to be possible to get your hands on a secretary of state or a minister straight away, and a very useful person to be able to get your hands on to make sure that messages get through is a PPS," he told the public administration committee last month.
The number of MPs who have been given the role of "sackable bag carrier" as Sir Peter Tapsell recently called them, is not unusually high.
But several backbenchers have expressed concerns that plans to reduce the size of the House of Commons will mean the executive will gain a greater stranglehold over Parliament.
Under measures contained in the Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Bill the number of MPs will be cut from 650 to 600.
If the payroll vote remains the same the number of backbench MPs free to question or vote against the government will be proportionally less than before.
The current government has 95 paid ministers in the Commons, the maximum number it is allowed under the Ministerial Salaries Act.
This is partially attributed to the need to ensure enough MPs from both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are in government to ensure the smooth running of the coalition.
Earlier this month the government defeated a move by backbenchers to amend the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill to reduce the limit to 87.
Conservative MP Charles Walker told MPs that unless they voted in favour of his amendment, the so-called "new politics" promoted by the coalition would die as the executive would have succeeded in "extending the tentacles of patronage" even further.
The amendment was defeated by a vote of 293 to 241.
Tory MP Christopher Chope recently introduced a private members bill which called for a legal limit on the total number of ministers, whips and PPS' in each House of Parliament.
The government has defended the size of the payroll vote.
Lib Dem deputy leader of the Commons David Heath has said there should not be a "simple arithmetical relationship" between the number of MPs and the number of ministers.
"To suggest that there is is to reduce the argument and to take it beyond what is reasonable," he said.
"Ministerial responsibilities must reflect what the prime minister and government of the day feel they need in order to do their work effectively."
The government has published a full list of parliamentary private secretaries. It can be viewed here.
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