The English Examining Boards: Their route from independence to government outsourcing agencies

172

separated into the Department for Education and Skills (DIES) and the Department
for Work and Pensions (DWP), David Blunkett was not called on to explain the
change. He had been appointed Home Secretary and replaced at the DfES by Estelle
Morris. The department’s new title signified that its remit went beyond educational
institutions to include the skills level of the wider population. But changing its partner
did not signify a reduction in its powers: rather the reverse would be seen to be the
case during the crisis of September 2002.

With this great expansion of the department, the status and influence of the Minister
had greatly increased. Added to the major increase in named ministerial powers
accorded by the 1988 Education Reform Act, the effect of the merger was to add
weight to the habitual claim of civil servants when challenged by the Boards over a
particular issue. The view of several interviewees was summed up by an OCR
official: “‘It’s with the Minister’ means it’s civil servants''’ (OCR2 2003). Now the
Minister’s increased power, or that of his civil servants, made the success of any
challenge by the examining boards very unlikely. For this study, in addition to
underlining increasing central power, the significance of these changes was to indicate
that unification had moved into education, where it was to have an unprecedented
impact on the examining boards.

Unifying Regulatory Bodies

The series of changes to the bodies which have regulated the examinations system is
illustrated in Figure 4.2. A principal exponent of the virtues of unifying agencies was
Sir Ron Dearing. However his motives were based not on market principles but on his

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