Changing modes of official accountability in the UK

Accountability norms for governmental officials (central government civil servants to local government officers) in the UK were traditionally stable and predictable, and based upon the primacy of political accountability. At central government level the mode of accountability was through the doctrine of individual ministerial responsibility within a majoritarian setting, and in local authorities, the accountability of officers was to committees of elected councillors normally dominated by one party. From the 1980s onwards, however, a series of new dynamics created more complex accountability relationships. These developments stemmed in part from the emergence of the New Public Management and ‘modernisation’ agendas, restructuring of central government through the process of agencification, the rise of consumerist modes of accountability, and the establishment of statute-based freedom of information.