In the last thirty years the average tenure for government ministers has almost halved, to 1.3 years. This paper argues that this damages our policy-making and our quality of government. This short briefing paper argues that:

•    Prime Ministers use their power to reshuffle ministers too often

•    British ministers spend too little time in post – average tenure is now down to 1.3 years

•    This encourages an unhelpfully short-term approach to policy

•    High churn rates also gives expert civil servants too much power relative to elected representatives

•    A new convention should be established whereby ministers are appointed for three-year ‘terms’