3.2) The concept of individual ministerial responsibility: Flashcards
1) What is the concept of individual ministerial responsibility?
1) Ministers are responsible for the running of their department and its policies. They are also responsible for their own personal conduct.
1) Which document sets out the official definition of individual responsibility?
2) What does the latest version state?
1) The Ministerial Code, which is issued at the start of a new government by the prime minister.
2) Ministers have a duty to account, and be held to account for the policies of their departments.
1) What happens if a minister intentionally misleads parliament?
1) They are expected to resign.
1) What is the most important job of a minister, in relation to the Prime Minister.
1) A minister must retain the confidence of the PM. The PM is the ultimate judge of the behaviour expected, and of the consequences handed out.
1) Are minor mistakes acceptable?
1) Yes, it is accepted that a minister can’t know everything that goes on within their department.
1) What does the fate of an individual minister depend on?
1) > How serious the issue is perceived to be.
> Level of criticism in parliament and media when a mistake is made.
> Attitude of the prime minister of the day.
1) What was Alastair Campbell’s, Blair’s press secretary, golden rule?
1) A minister would have to go if he or she was at the centre of a media storm, for a given period of time.
1) What factor has eroded away from the concept of individual responsibility?
2) What happened in 1995, in the case of Parkhurst Jail?
1) Since the late 1980s, many government functions have been taken over by executive agencies under a director-general, rather than a minister. This creates doubt over who is responsible, the minister assumes responsibility for policy, whilst the head of the agency assumes ‘operational responsibility.
2) Home secretary Michael Howard, sacked Derek Lewis, director-general of the Prisons Service, over prisoners escaping Parkhurst Jail.
1) How have civil servants begun taking responsibility for errors?
2) In 2012, what happened in the case of Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, sacking 3 civil servants.
1) Traditionally civil servants were anonymous, but the blurring of the lines of accountability has meant that they can be held responsible.
2) Mistakes had been made in awarding a franchise to companies that ran trains on the West Coast Main Line. One civil servant launched a successful legal action.
1) What is the most common cause of resignations?
2) Why was Peter Mandelson obliged to resign twice from Tony Blair’s first government?
1) Personal misconduct
2) > In 1998 he left his post as trade and industry secretary, after it was revealed that he was buying a house with a loan supplied by a Cabinet colleague, whose business affairs were being investigated by Mandelson’s department.
> He was forced out in 2002, as Northern Ireland Secretary, due to accusations that he fast-tracked a passport application by an Indian businessman.
1) How does the case of Charles Clarke and the foreign prisoners issue, show us how flexible the concept of ministerial responsibility is?
1) In April 2006, Clarke was challenged by opposition MPs, over the Home Office’s inability to account for the movements of more than 1000 foreign prisoners, after they had been released. They had been released without being considered for deportation. Clark privately offered to resign, but Blair declines. However 10 days later, the affair was still present in the media, so Blair sacked him. This was because Labour had poor results in the local elections, showing us how the interpretation of ministerial responsibility, depends on the circumstances of the time.
