3.2 - The Concept Of Ministerial Responsibility

Question 1

What actually is the concept of responsibility

Answer 1

• it’s a convention, not a fixed law which can be enforced
• there are no hard and fast rules govern in the circumstances in which ministers may be obliged to take responsibility for actions by resigning from gov

Question 2

What is individual ministerial responsibility

Answer 2

• idea where ministers are responsible for running their department, and policies, as well as responsibility for standard of their personal conduct
• official definition is set out in the ministerial code, issued at start of a new government by the PM.

Question 3

What does the fate of an individual minister depend on

Answer 3

• how serious the issue is
• level of criticism in parliament and the media when a mistake is made
• the attitude of the PM on the day

Question 4

What is a factor which has eroded the concept of individual responsibility

Answer 4

• since the 80s, many gov functions have been delegated to executive agencies under a director general, leading to doubt over who is accountable
• minister assumes responsibility for policy making, director general exercises operational responsibility

Question 5

What has doubt over who’s responsible for department failures led to? (Individual responsibility)

Answer 5

• in some cases, civil servants rather then ministers have been held responsible for department errors
  Eg: 2012 transport secretary McLoughlin admitted to making mistakes, resulting in 3 civil servants being suspended

Question 6

What’s the most common cause of resignations from a department in individual responsibility

Answer 6

• personal conduct
• eg: Peter Mandelson had to resign twice from Blair’s first gov

Question 7

What is the concept of ministerial responsibility

Answer 7

• convention that ministers must support all decisions of gov in public, responsible as a group to parliament and to the people
• discussions in cabinet should be confidential, and if defeated in a vote of no confidence, the gov resigns.

Question 8

What’s an example of a resignation over collective responsibility

Answer 8

In 2003, the leader of the HOC Robin cook resigned over the war with Iraq.

Question 9

What’s a couple of examples of an exemption to collective responsibility

Answer 9

• the need to compromise between Lib Dem’s and conservatives to form coalition government in 2010, agreeing on 4 seperation issues
• in 2016, David Cameron suspended collective responsibility on the European issue because of his split Conservative Party