ABSTRACT
In 1936, in an attempt to remedy the dysfunctions, a Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence was appointed. By then there were ten Secretaries of State, all presiding over expanded or spot-lighted departments, except for the Home Secretary and two whose offices expressed devolutionary objectives. It corresponded with new measures of administrative devolution, but ran counter to the main trend towards concentration of ministerial responsibilities, which by 1970 had reduced the number of departments to sixteen, only one of which had its chief outside the Cabinet, as compared with nine outside in 1957. Junior ministers are politicians who assist heads of their departments in general departmental operations and in speaking for the departments in the House of Parliament to which they belong. The most obvious case of this is the Scottish Department, in which the three Parliamentary Secretaries can be regarded almost as though each were a minister for the particular section of Scottish administration with which he is concerned.
