3.1 The structure, role and powers of the executive Flashcards
Who is the Prime Minister? What is their job in relation to the Cabinet?
- Head of the executive who chairs the Cabinet and manages its agenda
- Appoints all members of the Cabinet and junior ministers, and decides who sits on Cabinet committees
- Organises the structure of government - can create, abolish or merge departments
How many members does the Cabinet consist of?
- Consist of 20 to 23 senior ministers, including those who hold the title secretary of state
- Several senior figures are not members but attend its meetings
What are government departments?
- Each one is responsible for an area of policy, e.g. the Ministry of Defence, Department for Transport
- Each headed by a Cabinet minister, supported by several junior ministers responsible for specific aspects of the work of the department
What are Executive agencies?
- Semi-independent bodies that carry out some of the functions of government departments, for example, the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) is overseen by the Department for Transport
What are the 7 main prerogative powers?
- Award honours (a handful are given personally by the monarch)
- Declare war and authorise the use of the armed forces
- Sign treaties
- Take action to maintain order in case of emergency
- Grant and withdraw passports
- Grant legal pardons
- Appoint ministers and other senior office holders
What is the 2011 Fixed Term Parliament Act?
- Removed the right of the Prime Minister to determine the date of the general election
- However, as in the case of Theresa May, called an early election for June 2017, it is possible for the prime minister to override the act with the support of enough MPs
What is the ‘allocation of time’ motion, which dates back to 1887? And, what is it informally also known as?
A procedure that allows the government to curtail debate on the individual clauses of a bill; it applies only in the Commons. It is informally known as the guillotine.
Which government attempted to use the ‘allocation of time’ motion in a Lords debate on redrawing of constituency boundaries, and was abandoned?
The Coalition government, in 2011.
What is the programming motion?
A motion introduced by the Blair government, which enables the executive to set out in advance the time limits for each stage in the passage of a bill
What is Secondary legislation? (or delegated legislation)
Law made without passing a new act of parliament. Instead the government uses powers created by an earlier act.
What is the most common form of secondary legislation? And, what do they enable a government to do?
Statutory instruments. They enable a government to modify or repeal existing legislation without introducing a new bill.
What are the concerns about the growing use of statutory instruments to make more controversial changes? What are statutory instruments sometimes referred to as, and why?
- Opposition politicians and press commentators argue that the government was sneaking these changes through the back door
- They are sometimes called ‘Henry VIII clauses’ because they enable the government to evade parliamentary scrutiny
What changes have statutory instruments made, that are possibly controversial?
2016 - They were used to abolish maintenance grants for university students and to allow fracking in national parks.
Roughly how many statutory instruments become law without being put forward before MPs, despite parliament in theory being able to reject one?
About two-thirds of them simply become law on a specified date in the future.
