Individual And Collective Ministerial Responsibility

Question 1

Individual Ministerial Responsibility is a

Answer 1

Convention, rather than being a statute law passed by Parliament that is binding

Question 2

Responsibility for department

Answer 2

Current ministerial code set out that “Ministers have a duty to parliament to account, and be held to account, for the policies, decisions and actions of their departments and agencies”

Ministers are expected to accept responsibility for any failures or criticisms of their department. If there are any key failures or they are unable to effectively run their department, they are expected to resign.

Question 3

Responsibility for personal conduct

Answer 3

If their personal conduct falls below what is expected of them, they are expected to offer their resignation. This is a far more common cause of ministerial resignations than departmental failures.

Question 4

How is individual ministerial responsibility enforced

Answer 4

The PM enforces the ministerial code

As we have seen with ‘partygate’ there is no mechanism to hold the PM themselves to account when they are accused of wrongdoing.

Question 5

Executive agencies

Answer 5

• some government functions are delegated to ‘executive agencies’ under director generals, rather than under the direct control of government ministers. These include the Prison service, Court Service and DVLA.
• as a consequence there is doubt over who should be held accountable for failures.

Question 6

Arguments the ministerial responsibility is no longer important

Answer 6

• very dependent on the personal honour of individual ministers, who are unlikely to offer their resignations if it will damage their career prospects and mean they take a pay cut.
• individual ministerial responsibility is also very dependent on the PM as ‘judge, jury and executioner’
• rather than following the Ministerial Code, PMs often decide whether to force resignations from ministers based in the media and public backlash and the extent to which it is damaging their personal popularity and that or their party.
• there was a near complete breakdown of individual ministerial responsibility under Boris Johnson and it is possible this has set a precedent that has permanently weakened the convention.

Question 7

Arguments that ministerial responsibility remains important

Answer 7

• though individual ministerial responsibility was unimportant in Johnson’s government, it could be argued this was an aberration due to his personal low standards and that individual ministerial responsibility has become important again under Truss and Sunak.
• under a Keir Starmer Labour government, individual ministerial responsibility may become important again, as Starmer is likely to hold his ministers to higher standards.

Question 8

Potential reforms to ministerial responsibility

Answer 8

To really enforce and improve ministerial responsibility, the powers of ‘judge, jury and executioner’ would have to be taken out of individual PMs’ hands and given to an independent body with the power to enforce the Ministerial code.

This is highly unlikely, however, as it would involve a PM voluntarily giving up their key power of patronage and could risk themselves being forced to resign.

Question 9

Collective ministerial responsibility

Answer 9

Like individual ministerial responsibility, collective ministerial responsibility is a convention that is included in the Ministerial code and applies to all ministers.

It is intended to promote government unity in the face of opposition and means that the government as a whole is responsible to Parliament for its decisions.

It is also enforced by the PM.

Question 10

The key aspects of collective ministerial responsibilities

Answer 10

• government ministers are collectively responsible for all the government’s policies and must therefore all resign if the government loses a vote of no confidence in Parliament.
• Ministers can privately disagree in cabinet meetings, but the discussions in these meetings are kept secret and ministers must support and defend all of the government’s policies in public and the media, even if they personally/privately disagree with them.
• a minister must resign from the government before publicly criticising government policy. If a minister criticises government policy without resigning, then the PM should force them to resign.

Question 11

Why resignations on grounds of collective ministerial responsibility are rare

Answer 11

Resignations due to collective ministerial responsibility are rare as resigning from the government can end a minister’s political career.

Rather than taking a public stand, ministers are more likely to leak their dissatisfaction to the media or fight their corner within government.

Question 12

Exceptions to collective ministerial responsibility

Answer 12

Prime ministers can decide to suspend collective ministerial responsibility if they deem it necessary for the government to function effectively or politically advantageous, for example if it prevents their party becoming divided.

Question 13

Free votes

Answer 13

On certain controversial/sensitive issues, PMs have allowed ‘free votes’, where ministers are allowed to vote how they wish.

Question 14

Referendums

Answer 14

Prime ministers have frequently suspended collective ministerial responsibility during referendums in order to prevent the issue of the referendum dividing and harming the government.

Question 15

‘Big Beasts’

Answer 15

Some ministers who are important figures within politics and the government’s party are above collective ministerial responsibility, as they are too powerful/ popular to sack. Sacking the, may cause a revolt from a part of the party and therefore risk bringing down the government.

Question 16

Ideological disunity on collective responsibility

Answer 16

If the governing party, and therefore the government, is fundamentally disunited, then collective ministerial responsibility becomes limited as a concept.

Theresa May - divide within Conservative Party over Brexit

Question 17

Arguments that collective ministerial responsibility doesn’t remain important

Answer 17

• the fact that collective ministerial responsibility has been relaxed at times by PMs in a number of areas, including free votes, referendums and coalitions, could be used to suggest that collective ministerial responsibility is no longer important.
• collective ministerial responsibility has also been shown to break down to a significant to a significant extent when PMs are weak and the governing party is ideologically divided, with minister able to leak their dissatisfaction, brief against the government and even vote against the government without resigning or being sacked by the PM.

E.g. Theresa May and Liz Truss gov’s

Question 18

Arguments that collective ministerial responsibility remains important

Answer 18

• it can be argued that collective ministerial responsibility is important the vast majority of the time, especially when PMs are stronger. Ministers very rarely speak out against the government in public even if they disagree with government policy, whilst some ministers have resigned due to not being able to accept collective responsibility. They are therefore bound by collective responsibility.
• the fact that collective ministerial responsibility is sometimes relaxed as a necessity to ensure the government can continue to function shows its flexibility, which can be seen as a strength of collective ministerial responsibility and something that allows it to continue to be important.