News / Politics
WECA red box communication system scrapped
The practice of using a ministerial-style “red box” system for communication between the West of England metro mayor and their senior staff has been scrapped under the new mayor.
Previous metro mayor Dan Norris, a former Labour minister, had his senior officers communicate with him using the red box system.
The system is used in Whitehall but an independent review of the West of England Combined Authority had warned it was “not fit for purpose for modern regional government”.
is needed now More than ever
The system is understood to be no longer in use under new metro mayor Helen Godwin (also Labour).
Asked at a meeting of the West of England Combined Authority scrutiny committee on July 14 by Bristol City councillor Toby Wells (Knowle, Green) if the red box system had been “consigned to the recycling bin,” Godwin said she did not know what it was.
She said: “I’m assuming this is a system from the previous mayor I’m not familiar with.”
Wells responded: “If you don’t know about it, it probably doesn’t exist any more. Which is a good thing.”
In March 2024, the government had issued the combined authority with a warning called a best value notice over the “poor state of professional relationships” between then mayor Norris and council leaders, telling them to improve relationships.
A year later the government said it had been “reassured” and would not reissue the notice, two months before the 2025 mayoral election when Godwin was elected.
Asked by Wells what she was doing to rebuild relationships within the organisation, Godwin said she would treat people “with kindness, primarily, and with the intention of getting a lot of stuff done.”
She added that she had reached out to council leaders on day one.
She is appointing them as deputy mayor on a rolling annual basis. She said: “It’s about collaboration between all parties.”
Helen Godwin told councillors she did not know what Westminster’s red box system was – photo: Rob Browne
The independent review by Solace (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers), published in June 2024 had warned that the red box system “does not help the development of professional respect” and could result in the “misrepresentation” of people’s views.
It said: “In its simplest sense this communication system can leave the officers and the mayor ‘guessing’ at times.”
Red boxes are briefcases used to organise government ministers’ workloads.
Most people will be familiar with them primarily from situation comedy Yes Minister and the traditional picture taken of the chancellor holding their red box aloft on budget day.
At a meeting in September 2024, Norris defended the practice. He said: “I’m not going to remove the red box system.
“It’s used by government ministers, it’s established, it’s been built up and developed over hundreds of years and it works very well for government ministers so it should work very well for us.
“It’s also a way of being absolutely certain that we are agreed on what we’re communicating about.”
Norris was metro mayor from 2021 until 2025.
He was arrested in April, towards the end of his term as mayor, on suspicion of sexual offences against a girl, rape, child abduction and misconduct in a public office.
He remains on police bail while an investigation is ongoing and he has not been charged.
He was already not contesting the 2025 mayoral election as he had been elected as the MP for North East Somerset and Hanham.
He was suspended by the Labour Party upon his arrest, although Labour whip Chris Elmore has cast Norris’ proxy vote while he is understood to have been banned from the parliamentary estate.
Main photo: Martin Booth
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