Ben Bradshaw, Labour, Exeter

Thank you for your email of 17 August to Ben Bradshaw, Regional Minister for the South West regarding the polling evidence concerning the introduction of regional ministers. I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Government Office Network as the part of Government responsible for supporting Regional Ministers and I am sorry for the delay in responding to you.

Government has not conducted and is not aware of any polling concerning the introduction of Regional Ministers. The Prime Minister appointed a Minister for each of the nine English regions in June last year in order to strengthen the regions’ sense of strategic direction and links with central Government. The Governance of Britain Green Paper, published in July 2007, elaborated on this role, suggesting Regional Ministers’ key functions were to (i) act as an advocate and representative of central Government in the regions, ensuring that Government policy takes account of the differing needs of the nine English regions; and (ii) promote national policies regionally, making central government more visible in the regions and helping to raise its profile and generate awareness of the political system.

Having now been in post for one year, Regional Ministers’ responsibilities have developed further and are now focussed around the following three roles:

- Regional Leaders: working with members, officials and colleagues from all sectors to get beneath the headlines and into the detail of the problems facing the region – and to look for the solutions;

- Government Champions: taking part in key regional events to promote national policies and using these events also to explore how the region can draw on its experience to offer solutions back to Whitehall departments; and

- Regional Champions: working with colleagues within Whitehall to champion the needs of the region and to ensure that the region’s voice is heard – and to promote the region’s successes.

Regional Ministers also take the lead in Parliamentary debates focused on issued particular to their region. As stated in our response to the Modernisation Committee’s report into regional accountability, the Government believes that this role should be expanded and that Regional Ministers should take questions in Parliament on their activities to fulfill the roles outlined above. We expect these proposals to be debated later in the autumn, with the resulting arrangements likely to be implemented by the end of the year.

I hope this helps provide futher information for the introduction of Regional Ministers and the work they undertake.

Yours sincerely

Kris MacNaughton

Regional Coordination Unit
Government Office Network

October, 2008

RSS feed for comments on this post.