Dominic Cummings’s shake-up could mean mean scrapping ministers’ cabinet committees, where decisions are traditionally made

Dominic Cummings is preparing to use Cobra-style security meetings to push through Boris Johnson’s agenda and hold ministers and officials to account.

The prime minister’s chief adviser wants last year’s emergency no-deal preparations to become a template for reforming decision-making and project management in Whitehall.

The move could mean the scrapping of many cabinet committees in which decisions have traditionally been made. They would be replaced by groups in which ministers, officials and advisers from across departments worked together on specific projects. The structure would be modelled on the government’s Cobra emergency committee and the so-called XO committee that oversaw the no-deal delivery plans.

Unlike at present, civil servants working on projects would participate directly in the meetings, give advice and be held to