UK Executive

Question 1

What is cabinet government?

Answer 1

• Government where the power is located in the cabinet, rather than in the hands of the PM. There is therefore collective power. Three features of cabinet government:
1. Fuses Exec. And Legislative – “buckle that links” the two branches
2. Cabinet assumes role of senior exec. Body – controls policy making process and makes major government decisions
3. Policy is made equally between ministers – PM is simply first among equals (primus inter pares)
• Works on principle of Collective Ministerial Responsibility

Question 2

Describe collective ministerial responsibility

Answer 2

• The cabinet is supposed to be a united body. When a minister joins the cabinet, they are bound by the principle of collective responsibility. This is composed of two things:

1. All ministers are responsible as a collective for the actions of the cabinet, and must publicly support all decisions made within the cabinet
2. All decisions are to be considered collective – which means all ministers are jointly responsible for any cabinet actions

Question 3

What are ministers bound to do under CMR

Answer 3

1) If a minister does not agree with a cabinet decision and refuses to publicly support it, they must resign. Ministers often do this in protest of decisions which they believe are wrong. E.g Baroness Warsi in 2014 resigned as Foreign Office minister over the policy on Gaza
2) The government as a whole also must therefore resign if defeated on a vote of confidence in parliament – this happened last in 1979 (Callaghan’s government defeated over devolution bill)

Question 4

Describe individual ministerial responsibility

Answer 4

• Ministers are accountable to parliament for their policies, general conduct and actions of their department, as well as their own personal conduct
o Ministers often are forced to resign if there are mistakes made in their department over policy (events are also terrible – any jail break would result in the minister responsible resigning)
o Ministers also may resign for their department failing to do well enough – Estelle Morris resigned in 2012 as Education Secretary
• If there is any sort of scandal or mistake, most ministers will have to resign. Alistair Campbell said there was a 5 day rule, from which after 5 days if the story was still around you would have to resign.
o Damien Green was forced to resign from May’s cabinet after the porn scandal, Maria Miller resigned over dubious expenses claims