Week 2: Ministerial Responsibility and the Civil Service

Question 1

Is ministerial responsibility a convention or statutory regime?

Answer 1

Constitutional convention.

Question 2

What are the two types of ministerial responsibility.

Answer 2

Collective and individual.

Question 3

What are the three limbs of collective responsibility?

Answer 3

1. Confidence
2. Unanimity
3. Confidentiality

Question 4

Describe confidence.

Answer 4

Old perception: Originally required a gov’t must resign if it couldn’t command majority Commons support—the rule applied if a gov’t was defeated on a major policy issue

New perception: gov’t resigns if defeated on an explicit no-confidence motion

Question 5

Justify the change in attitude towards confidence.

Answer 5

• Governments are normally not elected because of their policy on a single issue, but because of the overall package of policies they offer
• Government’s failure to command majority on a single issue does not mean that it cannot do so in other areas
• Defeat in an explicit no-confidence motion, however, means Commons has lost its confidence in the Gov’t competence

Question 6

Describe unanimity.

Answer 6

Requires all Ministers to offer public support for all Cabinet decisions, even if a Minister opposed the policy concerned in Cabinet

Question 7

Describe a notable features of unanimity.

Answer 7

• Ministers who find a particular policy unacceptable should resign from office
• Assumption that ministerial differences of opinion have been voiced in Cabinet

Question 8

What are the three methods of testing whether the rule of unanimity has the status of a constitutional convention?

Answer 8

• Where a Minister strongly disagrees with a policy and voices dissent in Cabinet, but does not disclose this publicly – yet, we won’t know this until Cabinet papers are published (currently embargoed for 30 years)
• Where disagreement in Cabinet led to resignation or dismissal of Ministers
• Where there was public disagreement between Ministers but everyone involved stayed in office – this would disprove the rule’s status as a convention

Question 9

Name two circumstances in which collective solidarity has been suspended.

Answer 9

1. Whether to join the EU
2. Whether to leave the EU
3. Assisted dying bill

Question 10

Describe confidentiality.

Answer 10

• All Ministers owe each other a duty of confidentiality – they should not reveal how colleagues argued or voted in particular disputes

Question 11

Which case highlights the rule of confidentiality?

Answer 11

The Crossman Diaries Case