Francis Maude becomes minister for the Cabinet Office

Governance | Tania Mason | 13 May 2010

David Cameron has appointed Francis Maude (pictured) as minister for the Cabinet Office but there is no news yet on who will be given responsibility for civil society within the department.

Oliver Letwin has secured the job of minister of state in the Cabinet Office, a role that will see him providing policy advice to the Prime Minister.

An announcement is expected shortly on who will be given responsibility for the sector. Liberal Democrat charities spokesman Jenny Willott yesterday ruled herself out of the running as she is going on maternity leave soon.

Tory incumbent Nick Hurd said he would only comment when the post has been announced.

While in opposition the Conservatives mooted the idea of turning the Office of the Third Sector into an Office for Civil Society, and most recently resurrected the prospect just before the election in a letter to sector leaders.

Francis Maude has in the past been critical of volunteering initiative v, citing the need for a rigorous independent assessment of its effectiveness.

He has also condemned the "leisurely pace" of Labour's progress on the proposed Social Investment Wholesale Bank, and stated that the sector should be more independent of government.

Maude is also on record as saying it is essential that civil society organisations that delivered public services for the government recovered all their costs and made a return.

The full list of ministerial appointments to date can be found here.

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.