The Executive Flashcards
Structure of the Executive: Prime Minister
Head of the executive and holds final decision-making power, leads the executive by determining polucy and making decisions on major national issues
Structure of the Executive: Cabinet
Appointed by the PM, Senior ministers in the cabinet lead the gov departments and formulate policy with the PM.
Cabinet meet weekly to discuss key gov issues
- 22 cabinet ministers in Rishi Sunak’s gov as of october 2022 such as James Cleverly (secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs)
Structure of the Executive: Junior Ministers
appointed by PM and have responsibilities within governmnet departments, have specific roles under their cabinet ministers.
Currently 97 junior ministers
Structure of the Executive: Government Department
Responsibility for an area of policy, they are run by a secretary of state and include ministers and civil servants.
Civil servants are permanent staff members within gov who support the current gov in carrying out its policies
Roles of the Executive: Legislation Proposals
Executive sets out its legislative agenda, including policies in its election manifesto
- gov departments develop legislation proposals and cabinet ministers agree which ones they want as part of its legislative programme
The proposals, called bills, are outlined in the Kings speech before the lawmaking process
- Gov proposed a Smart Meters bill to parliament 2017
Roles of the Executive: Budget
proposed to parliament by executive in the budget statement (March/april each year). Chancellor proposes changes to taxation and the state of the nation’s economy.
The budget is the way the gov raises funds and has apporval from parliament to spend money, budget will be debated before entering the lawmaking process
2017 budget
Delivered by chancellor Phillip Hammond outlined policies such as increasing the National Living Wage from £7.50 to £7.83
Roles of the Executive: Policy Decisions
The executive makes policy decision on how the country is run like how public money should be spent, how public services are delivered and taxes set
- 2012 Conservatve cut the tax rate for people earning over £150,000 a year from 50% to 45% of income
Powers of The Executive: Royal Prerogative
The monarchs power which the PM or cabinet exercise, it includes (whih relate to the judicial sytem) legal pardons and reducing offenders’ sentence lengths.
The executive has prerogative powers to deploy the army, grant honours and use prerogative emergency powers so they can act decisively during emergencies
Powers of The Executive: Royal Prerogative Examples
2018 May sent British fighter jets to carry out airstrikes on Syria without Parliaments approval
2018 May appointed new members to HoL such as former conservative Eric Pickles
2017 May used prerogative emergency powers to raise the UKs terror threat level to critical after London Bridge Terror attack
Powers of The Executive: Initiating legislation
Power to enact policies from manifesto to be made into law as primary legislation
Executive can initiate secondary legislation where it makes changes to existing law under powers granted. Secondary legislation means it can change the law without a new bill.
