The Prime Minister And Executive

Question 1

What are the main roles of the executive?

Answer 1

Proposing legislation:

• Either whole new laws or amendments to current laws
• They often announce new laws from their manifesto during the Queen’s speech at the opening of Parliament
• They can also introduce laws not in their manifesto, often in response to emergencies e.g. terrorism. These are known as ‘a doctor’s mandate’
• Ministers may meet with interested parties before introducing legislation e.g. in 2015 David Cameron met with big business owners before introducing his apprenticeship levee

Proposing a budget:

• The budget is an annual statement created by the chancellor that outlines public spending for the next year
• If a new government comes into power after a general election it will propose its own budget e.g. in 2010 George Osbourne proposed a new budget in June only 3 months after the Labour government proposed their own

Making policy decisions:
-The Government has to decide how to give effect for its aims of the future of the country e.g. after the 2019 general election, the Conservative government introduced its withdrawal agreement which was voted on and accepted

Question 2

What are the main royal prerogative powers of the government?

Answer 2

• Appoint ministers
• Create, merge or remove government departments
• Declare War
• Award honours

Question 3

What are some royal prerogative powers that have been given up by previous governments?

Answer 3

• The PM used to have the power to declare war, but the Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011 put that in the hands of Parliament
• The PM still can declare war, however after the debate on the Iraq war in 2003 it is almost always given to vote in parliament to engage in military action

Question 4

How does the executive initiate and pass legislation?

Answer 4

• The executive has all days (apart from 20 opposition days and 13 days for private members bills) to introduce its legislation
• If a Government has a strong majority it can use the whip system in order to pass legislation
• However, if legislation is unpopular (e.g. HS2) or the government is a minority government (e.g. 2017-19) then rebellions May occur
• The Government May also use the guillotine (dating back to 1887) to curtail debate time on legislation to force it through

Question 5

What is secondary legislation?

Answer 5

• Legislation that is made without passing new laws, using powers created in an earlier act
• These allow governments to modify or repeal legislation without introducing a new bill
• This has created some controversy however. For example, in 2016 the government uses statutory instruments to remove maintenance grants for students and to allow fracking in national parks

Question 6

What are the main factors that influence the relationship between the Prime Minister and their Cabinet?

Answer 6

• The management skills of the Prime Minister
• The Prime Minister’s ability to set the agenda
• The use of cabinet committees and informal groups to take decisions
• The development of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Office
• The impact of the wider political and economic situation

Question 7

How does the management skills of the Prime Minister affect the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Cabinet?

Answer 7

• A determined and astute Prime Minister will assert their control over the Cabinet often by appointing those loyal to them and removing poor performers
• However, Sometimes asserting their power too harshly can be later detrimental to the Prime Minister e.g. when Margaret Thatcher needed the support of her cabinet when their was a leadership challenge in 1990, she didn’t get it as she had alienated and sidelined most of her senior ministers

Question 8

How does the PM’s ability to set the agenda affect the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Cabinet?

Answer 8

• The Prime Minister retains the sole power to decide what is discussed in Cabinet, what is not discussed in Cabinet and what is decided in Cabinet
• Cabinet rarely votes on decision making e.g. under Blair, cabinet didn’t have any say in what was decided in the outcome as it had been pre decided by Blair
• PM’s can also choose to not include key talking points in Cabinet e.g. Harold Wilson forbid anyone talking about devaluing the pound between 1964 and 1967 even though many ministers wanted to

Question 9

How does the use of cabinet committees and informal groups affect the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Cabinet?

Answer 9

• Prime ministers often make decisions in smaller cabinet groups relating to significant issues e.g. May’s brexit Cabinet was much smaller than the actual cabinet
• The decisions made in these smaller groups are then put to a larger vote in the main cabinet
• By choosing the membership of these cabinets, the Prime Minister can exercise huge degrees of control over decision making
• These smaller cabinets cannot exist in Coalition governments however e.g. during the coalition government the only smaller cabinet group that existed was the quad

Question 10

How does the development of the prime ministers office and the cabinet office affect the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Cabinet?

Answer 10

• The PM has more resources e.g. advisors and civil servants available than the rest of the cabinet
• In 1974 Harold Wilson used these resources to create a new policy unit to oversee and drive policy across different departments
• Under Blair There was close cooperation between the Prime Ministers office and the cabinet office to support the coordination and implementation of policy
• Cameron took a more hands off approach, giving ministers more freedom, however after a series of policy embarrassments he created a policy and implementation unit in 2011 to give greater oversight

Question 11

How does the wider political and economic situation affect the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Cabinet?

Answer 11

• A PM with a large parliamentary majority and a united party e.g Labour 1997 will find it easier to gain ascendency than those governments with a small/no majority and a disunited party e.g. Major in 1992
• Popularity, a strong economy and the ability to master events all strengthen a Prime Minister’s position e.g. Thatcher was incredibly popular after the 1982 Falklands War victory and Brown was harmed badly by the 2008/9 financial crisis