ABSTRACT
There are certain statutory limitations on the total number, but, as was shown in 1964, it is an easy matter for a Government to ask Parliament to pass legislation authorising an increase in the maximum number of ministers to be appointed. It was felt that something would be lost if ministers, being wholly excluded from the Commons, could not explain their policies and be attacked in the House. Much later, in 1919, a Re-election of Ministers Act exempted certain offices from the need to seek re-election, and another Re-election of Ministers Act in 1926 ended the need for re-election altogether. Meanwhile, a Machinery of Government Bill was brought in to permit the maximum number of office-holders in the Commons to be ninety-one instead of seventy; it also allowed the appointment of nine Secretaries of State instead of eight, and thirty-six Parliamentary Secretaries instead of thirty-three. It increased the maximum number of Ministers of State to eighteen.
