individual ministerial responsibility Flashcards
What are ministers individually responsible for?
ministers are responsible for the running of their departments, and therefore culpable for the departments mistakes.
How are ministers held individually responsible and accountable?
keep parliament informed, apologise for mistakes, take action to protect mistakes, resign if matters are serious enough.
What are some recent examples of ministers resigning over their actions and decisions in officee?
1988- resignation of Edwina Currie- parliamentary under secretary stater of health resigned after critics accused her of exaggerating number of British eggs carrying salmonella on TV interview.
egg sale declined by 60%.
What is an example of a minister resigning due to revelations about their conduct in personal lives?
resignation of Chris Hume- secretary of state for energy and climate change, prosecuted for perverting court of justice- asked his wife to take driven licence penalty points to avoid being banned from driving.
resigned and served 9 weeks in prison.
Why are ministers also considered to be accountable and responsible for their entire department?
parliament is primary source for information about govt departments for both blame and praise of said department. Ministers make political policy decisions- civil servants just impartially advise- should be ministers held responsible when political policy fails.
civil servants kept anonymous
What is an example of a minister resigning over mistakes made by their department?
Thomas Dugdale- minister of agriculture, During WW2 govt forced a landowner to sell 725 acres of farmland to be used as runway- owners told they could buy back land. Not true- owners launched campaign to pressure govt- criticised civil servants x minister.
minister resigned.
How has the growing size and complexity of modern govt impacted the convention?
ministers delegate more as they deliver more services- harder for them to be aware of everything going on in said parliament.
offices now have tens of thousands of staff compared to previous times.
Why have ministers argued they should be held accountable but x necessarily responsible for the arms-length bodies that largely implement their departments policies?
constitutionally-ministers remain responsible to parliament for the executive agencies w-n their departments and other bodies that departments sponsor.
ministers agree that they should be responsible for the policy but chief executives of bodies are responsible for implementatiomn of policy.
Why can this be problematic? Why can it be difficult to decide if a problem was caused by a flawed policy, or poor implementation?
three prisoners escaped from Pankhurst prison 1995, policy issue- home office ensure there was a sufficient number of prison officers.
implementation issue- did her majesty’s prison service not do enough to ensure prison was running effectively.
What is the ministerial code? What are its limitations?
document produced by cabinet office which sets out standards expected of govt ministers.
not legally binding, quite vague on grounds of resignation.
What are some of the political factors that influence whether or not a minister will either resign or be fired?
How resistant a minister is to resigning, How much support do they have on backbenches, How effectively is error being used by opposition
What policy factors influenced the resignation of Lord Carrington in 1982?
saw press as all but unanimous in his resignation, did x want to enter a war about who was responsible, Wanted the country to go forward united in fighting the war rather than divided over whose fault it was.
