ABSTRACT
Given the fundamental importance of ministerial responsibility, it is perhaps surprising that there are neither formal qualifications for office nor formal means by which the suitability for office is scrutinised in advance. Sir Ivor Jennings states that:
... the most elementary qualification demanded of a Minister is honesty and incorruptibility. It is, however, necessary not only that he should possess this qualification but also that he should appear to possess it. [1959a, Chapter V, p 106]
Lord Hailsham expresses the same sentiment as follows:
A politician must be trustworthy, and if he is found out telling a lie or if he is discovered in even a small financial dishonesty, he can only bow himself out of public life. [1975, p 199]
If a minister of the Crown or Member of Parliament conducts his personal or financial affairs in such a manner that falls below an ‘acceptable standard’, the minister may be required to resign. Finer (1956) describes such conduct as being:
... a personal misadventure of the minister which raises such doubt about his personal prudence or integrity as to cause him to resign.
