3.2- individual ministerial responsibility Flashcards
What is individual ministerial responsibility?
- their responsibility for the performance of their department
- their responsibility for their own individual conduct
- must give accurate information to parliament and must resign if their knowingly mislead parliament
What are the Nolan principles, and what did Tony Blair implement that was related to these?
The key principles expected of ministers. After Tony Blair became prime minister, he published these in the ministerial code
How is IMR enforced?
- the prime minister is judge, jury and executioner
- prime minister can be advised but ultimately it is down to them
What are recent complications and changes to individual ministerial responsibility?
- blaming of civil servants
- government functions are often delegated to executive agencies, not under direct government control
- Boris johnson revised the ministerial code
How does the example of Gavin William show it has become increasingly difficult to enforce IMR?
In 2020, following the failure of the exams algorithm, the education secretary Gavin Williamson failed to resign for a year after this failure. instead the head of OFQUAL, Sally Coller, resigned after overseeing the algorithm.
How did Boris Johnson change ministerial responsibility?
- weekened the rules so that ministers who broke the ministerial code were not immediately expected to resign but instead to publicly apologise and accept a reduction in pay
- ‘honesty’, ‘integrity’, and ‘accountability’ were removed
give an example of a minister resigning after misleading parliament.
- amber rudd resigned in 2018 after ‘inadvertantly’ misleading parliament
- she stated she did not know of any deportation removal targets when documents showed she did
how does the example of matt hancock show a success of IMR?
- 2021 matt hancock (health secretary) resigned after video came out of him having an extra marital affair
- by doing so he was breaking his own departments covid regulations
- originally he appologised and boris johnson stated the case was closed
- media and public pressure grew causing him to resign
how does the example of suella braverman show failings and in part successes in IMR?
- in 2022 suella braverman resigned as home secretary under lizz truss after using a personal email to send classified documents
- in her resignation letter she heavily criticized the government
- she was reappointed as home secretary a week later under rishi sunak
- she was then forced to resign again after writing a peace in the times that accused the police of being biased towards left wing protests. before it was published downing street demaded changes that were ignored.
explain how pretti patel shows a failing in the system of IMR.
- in 2020 an independent investigation concluded that pretti patel had bullied civil servants
- johnson argued her actions did not constitute bullying
- boris johnson failed to force her to resign- she was a ‘big beast’ as she was very popular with the right of the party
How does the example of boris johnson show a massive weakening of ministerial code?
- ministers heald parties in no.10 during lockdown breaking their own covid rules
- boris johnson then knowingly mislead parliament about the parties yet did not resign
- boris johnson then changed and weakened the ministerial code
- shows IMR is a weak convention and dependent on the prime minister as ‘judge, jury and executioner’
- suggests some prime ministers have very low standards when it comes to personal conduct
How does the example of Dominic Rabb suggest that IMR is reluctantly enforced?
- Dominic Rabb recieved bullying alligations from over 20 civil servants
- rishi sunak failed to make rabb resign immediately, instead setting up an inquirey
- the inquirey concluded that Rabb had acted “agressively” towards officials and he resigned
what are the arguments that IMR is no longer important?
- IMR is dependent on the personal honour of individual ministers
- growth of government and NGO’s can make it difficult to enforce
- ministers often decide wether to force regination based on the level of public and media backlash
- there was a near complete break down of IMR under Boris Johnson, may now set a future precedent.
what are the arguments that IMR is still important?
- while IMR broke down under Johnson, it could be argued that IMR has becom eimportant again under sunak and truss
-ensures ministers are held accountable for their departments performance - ensures ministers are held accountable for conduct
- in the past ministers have resigned without media pressure
give an example of a minister resigning due to the failing of their department.
2002, estelle morris, resigned after her department failed to meet its literacy and numeracy targets
