LETTER: Buck stops here - or does it?

THERE can be no better plea for a written constitution than "Power without responsibility", (22 October) which reveals the failings of our uncodified constitution to check the scope of unaccountable ministerial prerogative powers. These are made more insidious by Crown servant status subordinating Next Steps agency administrators. If this was removed these agencies would become quangos with the relative and paradoxical advantage of enabling MPs' questions to be answered free from tortuous Cabinet Office regulations.

But the best public accountability would be achieved with direct election of agency senior managers. This would, after all, acknowledge their strong role in accountability procedures, as documented by Nick Cohen.

Chris Lamb

Midsomer Norton, Bath