individual ministerial responsibility Flashcards
individual responsibility refers to
principle that ministers are responsible for themselves and their department. This includes:
Private / personal conduct
General conduct of the department they are responsible for
Acts done or not done by officials
Policy
Ministers are therefore responsible to Parliament for the actions of their own departments. They can be held to account for their department’s actions through Question Time or select committee scrutiny. Under this, civil servants in a particular department should be loyal to their minister and support their actions. There are many reasons why a minister may resign through individual responsibility:
rules of ministers known as
ministerial code’, issued by the Prime Minister at the start of a new government. The most recent was published in May 2022.
personal misjudgements and mistakes
If a minister makes a personal mistake in their own character, they are expected to resign because the highest standards of behaviour are expected by ministers who run government departments.
Cecil Parkinson (1983) – Party chairman, destined for Foreign Secretary after the 1983 General Election. Just before the election, he broke it to Thatcher that he had been having an affair with her secretary. The secretary was pregnant, so he said he had to resign.
Ron Davies (1998) – caught on Clapham Common ‘looking for company’. Welsh Secretary in the Blair government. “A serious error of judgement in a moment of madness.”
Chris Pincher (2023)- former Tory whip resigned after losing appeal after suspension for groping two men drunkenly
policy differences
Ministers should agree on the direction of policy of the government. A minister should not be part of a government if it is pursuing policy they cannot agree with.
Robin Cook (2003) – Foreign Secretary, resigned over Iraq.
David Davis (2018) – Brexit secretary, disagrees with PM’s stance
Dominic Raab (2018) – Brexit secretary, disagrees with PM’s stance.
Political misjudgements and mistakes
A minister may do something that is not deemed to be in the best interest of their department or the government as a whole.
David Blunkett (2004 & 2005) – Education secretary, promoted in 2001 to Home Secretary. He was having an affair and resigned in 2004.
Priti Patel (2017) – made a number of trips to Israel, having meetings with government officials and did not declare them to Downing Street.
Matt Hancock (2021)- resigned as health secretary after breaching social distance guidance by kissing a colleague.
Points of principle
If a minister cannot agree with something out of a point of principle, they are expected to resign.
Lord Carrington (1982) – Foreign Secretary, said that he should’ve seen that the Falklands War was going to happen, he didn’t, so he resigned.
Lord Whitelaw (1982 – not accepted) – Home secretary, Thatcher’s first deputy prime minister. Michael Fagan broke into the Queen’s bedroom which was a breach of security. As Home Secretary, he felt that he should resign.
2022 government crisis: throughout 2021 and 2022, a range of scandals overshadowed the work of Boris Johnson’s government, including partygate, the Owen Patterson scandal, wallpapergate and the Chris Pincher scandal. After PM Boris Johnson lied to ministers and allowed them to go on morning TV and repeat those lies, over 60 ministers resigned from Johnson’s government, including his Chancellor and Health Secretary. Johnson later resigned as PM.
Has the principle been eroded?
Changing public attitude
Distrust towards politicians
Next Steps Programme (1988)
This took the responsibility of implementing policy away from Ministers towards an agency.
In 1995: Derek Lewis, former Director-General of HM Prison Services, and Michael Howard, Home Secretary, were both blamed for the escapes of IRA prisoners. Neither wanted to take the blame, so Howard sacked Lewis as Director-General and managed to escape resignation himself. Howard later said on breakfast TV that this was the wrong thing to do.
Unsuccessful individual responsibility
Gavin Williamson (2020)
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson faced calls to resign after A-Level and GCSE results that saw many students miss out on university places. The conduct of the Education Department was thrown into question after an algorithm inadvertently lowered the grades of students in lower-income areas. Williamson remained Education Secretary for a further year.
Priti Patel (2020)- Home Secretary faced calls to resign after an inquiry found she bullied a civil servant, however refused to.
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak (2022)- The Prime Minister and Chancellor were found to have broken their own coronavirus laws by attending parties in Downing Street in Summer 2020. Despite receiving fines and Johnson becoming the first Prime Minister to break the law, both refused to resign.
