Government says it will review ministerial numbers after committee said many appointments were driven by patronage
The number of ministers is expected to be cut following criticism that the government has created pointless jobs to maintain influence over crucial parliamentary votes, a powerful select committee said.
A reduction may well take place at the next general election in 2015 when the House of Commons is reduced from 650 to 600 seats, the public administration committee confirmed.
The disclosure has emerged in the government's response to the committee's report Smaller government: What do ministers do?, in which it called on the government to undertake a fresh review of ministerial numbers.
The Conservative chair of the committee, Bernard Jenkin, said: "We are delighted to note that, following the recommendations of our earlier report on ministerial numbers, the government now accepts the principle that the number of ministers must be reviewed when the House of Commons is reduced from 650 to 600 seats in 2015.
"The government tells us that the number of ministers is under constant review: no doubt work is in hand to prepare for the time when ministers, like the rest of us, will have to do more with less."
The committee had previously examined appointments in David Cameron's government and claimed they were "patronage-driven".
In March, the committee recommended that the payroll should be slashed by more than 60 within four years. Many ministers were engaged in tasks better carried out by officials, and parliamentary aides performed "few functions of real value", the report said.
In October, there were 121 MPs on the "payroll vote" as ministers or their parliamentary aides who are obliged to vote with the government or resign.
The payroll vote makes up a "deeply corrosive" 22% of the Commons, but that would rise to 23.5% unless at least eight ministerial posts were cut, the March report found.
In a response to the committee report released on Monday, officials wrote: "The government agrees with the committee that decentralisation, improved service delivery and the reduction in the number of MPs, amongst other initiatives, provide an opportunity to consider the number of the ministers and their role.
"As the committee acknowledges, the government has already made an important contribution to this agenda by agreeing a five per cent reduction in pay for all ministers and the reform of ministerial pensions."
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