ABSTRACT
This takes up a surprising amount of time, for many decisions within departments must be taken by ministers. Much of this stems from the vast expansion in secondary legislation, which delegates to ministers quasi-judicial powersfor instance, on immigration cases-and extensive powers to issue regulations and guidance; the Children Act of 1989 required the Health Secretary to issue innumerable sets of complex guidance and regulations. Ministers spend a lot of time going through papers from officials on proposals to close schools, approve or reject planning appeals, merge health authorities, approve pay settlements, and so on. Increasingly, Secretaries of State devolve such detailed work to junior ministers, but must still be aware of the main decisions being taken, for which they must answer to Parliament and the public. The volume of correspondence is particularly daunting: ministers must reply to letters from MPs and peers, and Edwina Currie recalls regularly signing 300 letters to MPs a week when she was a junior health minister (Currie 1989).
