Cabinet Office now 'a dustbin' for Whitehall's unwanted work, Lords claim

No 10 has in effect merged with the Cabinet Office and expanded its role to deliver policy, straying into the realms of departments across Whitehall, an influential committee of peers says today. The Lords constitution committee says that under Labour the Cabinet Office has become a "dustbin" for work that departments don't want to take on, and calls for a review of all the units at the centre of government with the transfer of some to individual departments. The report criticises Tony Blair's 2003 move to abolish the role of the lord chancellor – a constitutional change about which there was "no justification" for his failure to consult parliament or the judiciary. Lord Goodland, chair of the committee, said: "The evidence we received clearly suggested that power within the cabinet has become more centralised with the prime minister."