Concepts of Ministerial responsibility Flashcards
What is ministerial responsibility ?
- Ministers are accountable for their action as an individual member of government and as a head of their department
What are ministers now more likely to resign for ?
- Personal misconduct eg Priti Patel (2018 involved in unauthorised meetings with the government of Israel) and Mandelson (2001 over accusations of using his position to influence a passport application)
Ministers that have resigned for their own failures
- Due to government functions that have been delegated to executive agencies
- Eg Michael Howards (resigned following the loss of the 2005 election) + McLoughlin (2018 due to a disappointing performance in the 2017 election)
- Priti Patel 2018 over unofficial meetings with Israel
Case study of Charles Clarke
- 2006
- Labour home secretary
- Emerged 1000 foreign citizens who were released from prison were unaccounted for
- “department had taken it’s eye off the ball” but refused to resign
- 10 days after he lost his job in a reshuffle after media interest continued
David Laws
- 2010
- Resigned due to the expenses scandal due to the disclosure of parliamentary expenses (individual)
Collective ministerial responsibility
- Cabinet members must support the decisions of cabinet publicly or resign
Individual ministerial responsibility
- Ministers are accountable for the actions of their department and their own
Liam Fox
- 2011
- Resigned over allegations he gave a close friend and lobbyist inappropriate access to the ministry of defence and allowed him to join official trips
- Individual ministerial responsibility
Chris Huhne
- 2012
- Charged with perverting the course of justice over a 2003 speeding case in which at the time his wife claimed she was driving the car to avoid him being banned from driving
- Individual ministerial responsibility
Andrew Mitchell
- 2012
- Resigned from Chief whip when there was an alleged altercation with a police officer referred to as plebgate
- Individual ministerial responsibility
What is the expected consequence of a minister misleading Parliament? Who is the ‘ultimate judge’ of ministerial standards and behaviour?
- If a minister has misled Parliament they are expected to reign from their position, although this is only a convention
- The PM is the ultimate judge of standards and behaviour, with this linking to the prerogative power of appointing/dismissing ministers.
How can it be argued that ministerial responsibility is in decline ?
- 2022 Partygate scandal MPs are yet to resign following allegations of lockdown breaches
What impacts the fate of ministers when their conduct/departmental actions are under scrutiny? (3)
- the severity of the situation
- level of parliamentary/media criticism
- the attitude of the PM.
How have ministers recently argued that they are not themselves responsible for some departmental failures?
- Given that Government actions are now being delegated to executive agencies, the Secretary of State can argue that the error was committed by the head of the executive agency
- they therefore should resign rather than the minister.
What recent example is there of the head of an Executive Agency being forced to resign rather than a minister?
- In 2020, the head of OFQUAL, Sally Collier, was forced to resign over the exams fiasco rather than Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson.
How did Robin Cook resign due to the principle of collective ministerial responsibility? What role did he have?
- 2007
- Robin Cook resigned as Leader of the House of Commons in opposition to Tony Blair’s war in Iraq,
- he did not believe the war to be lawful having not had a resolution from the UN
How did Baroness Warsi resign due to the principle of collective ministerial responsibility?
- 2014
- Baroness Warsi resigned from her role as a Foreign Minister due to David Cameron’s policy of supporting Israeli settlements being built on the Gaza Strip
When has Collective Ministerial Responsibility been suspended in the past?
The principle of Collective Ministerial Responsibility has previously been suspended during the 1975 and 2016 EU Referendums and the 2010-15 Coalition Agreement between CON + LIB.
What is the ‘payroll vote’?
- The ‘payroll vote’ is the formality that all Members of Parliament involved in Government will support legislation
- This guarantees that a proposal will receive a certain number of votes.
What are the positives of Collective Ministerial Responsibility?
- Collective Ministerial Responsibility creates a strong and united front by all Cabinet ministers and the Government
- it strengthens the power and legitimacy of the PM
- guarantees the support of Cabinet ministers in Parliament
- allows private disagreements.
What are the negatives of Collective Ministerial Responsibility?
- CMR effectively ‘gags’ ministers from expressing their own views
- provides the PM with excessive power, resignations under CMR can heavily undermine a government.
Matt Hancock
- Resigned 2021
- Following news he had breached COVID social distancing measures after kissing aide BUT only resigned following public backlash
What has happened to ministerial responsibility in 2022 ?
- Following partygate, Johnson has changed the ministerial code
- Ministers will not always be expected to resign for breaching the code of conduct (instead they can apologise or temporarily lose their pay instead)
2022 Example of collective ministerial responsibility
- 2022 : Junior minister resigned over partygate
2020 Resignation of minister
- 2020 : A junior minister resigned over the government decision to not extend FSM over summer
When has collective ministerial responsibility been suspended ?
- 2010-15 Coalition
- 2016 : Brexit referendum and campaign
Who failed to resign following the 2020 exam disaster ?
- Gavin Williamson
- Instead the head of ofqual resigned
