ABSTRACT
Many in the party have advocated measures designed to subject ministers and the civil service to greater democratic oversight and accountability, albeit with only limited success. Labour governments have always accepted the constitutional conventions of individual ministerial responsibility and collective Cabinet responsibility, and this has meant that they have had rather conservative views on issues such as civil service anonymity, Whitehall secrecy and the scope and techniques of parliamentary control. In the 1960s, although the Labour government created an ombudsman to guard against maladministration and sponsored a range of specialized Commons select committees, reformers were disappointed by its constitutional conservatism. If the Labour Party machine can be criticized for failing to develop a clear and practicable policy in Opposition before 1974, then the Callaghan government can fairly be criticized for its failures of political management on this issue.
