How do you Abolish a Cabinet Department?

[Gary J]

It may be better to rely on legislation, than the British habit of the Prime Minister renaming and rearranging departments during cabinet reshuffles. It sometimes seems changes are just made to meet some immediate (and probably transient) political need, with no real thought to the long term administrative logic of the new arrangements. There is something to be said for the greater difficulty in making changes found in the US system.

The reason why changes can be made so easily in the UK system is that most, non financial, areas of government, are entrusted to the Secretary of State. This is, in theory, a single office with multiple holders. Although it has been customary, for several centuries, to assign particular functions to individual Secretaries of State these can be reallocated with no great formality.

Typically legislation on Ministers of the Crown prescribes the maximum number of paid ministers of a particular kind, but not the particular function of each.