WK 7 - UK Government Flashcards
Purpose of executive branch
- Make and implement public policy
- Executes and administers law enacted by legislature
Role of executive branch
- Runs country
- Initiative-taker: Develops skills + designs change for public policy, & reacts to unforeseen events
- Drafts Bills
- Has majority in HoC
- Implements Acts of Parliament
Formation of new policy
- Executive’s responsibility
- (If needed) legislative is parliament’s responsibility
- Implementation is executive’s responsibility
‘Elective dictatorship’?
- Relationship between the executive and legislative branches
- Composition of HoC determines political nature of executive
- The government will have the support of a majority in HoC
Composition of central government
- The Monarch
- Prime Ministers
- Ministers: Secretaries of State, Junior Ministers, Whips, the Lord Chancellor, Attorney-General
- Government departments
- Cabinet
- Civil service
- Special advisors
Nature of PM office
- Constitutional practice rather than law
- Held along with another recognised post (now: First Lord of the Treasury)
- A range of appointments made or approved by PM (in legislative)
[e.g., commissioners, most senior civil servants, etc.]
Powers of the Prime Minister in relation to the Cabinet
- Makes all appointments to ministerial office
- Controls the machinery of central government [carried out by gov’t department]
- Able to determine present priorities of gov’t
- Collective responsibility
- PM has more opportunities to present and defend gov’t policies
Describe collective responsibility in regards to PM powers
- Constitutional convention
- All ministers collectively responsible for government policies, so PM is supported by all ministers
Describe ministerial offices
- Some have longer history than office of PM
Describe government departments
- Branches staffed by civil service and paid by Treasury fund
- Created by constitutional convention but certain aspects now legalised (e.g., Ministers of the Crown Act 1975)
- New departments are easily created or renamed
Describe ministers of the crown
- ‘The holder of any office in HM Government in the UK’
- Constitutional convention that ministers come from Commons and Lords
Describe The Ministerial Code
- Part of new constitutional structure, but not legally binding
- Regulates behaviour of ministers
- Published by each new PM
Explain financial interests of ministers
- Overriding principle: Ministers must ensure no conflict arises, or could be reasonably perceived to arise, between their private interests + public duties
- Financial interests now published on gov’t website
- Ministerial meetings with lobbyists also published
Cabinet composition
- 21-23 members, who are senior government members (including PM)
- No statute regulates Cabinet composition [only 22 salaried posts]
- Since 1960s all major departments placed under supervision of Cabinet Minister
Is the cabinet manual legally binding?
No
Cabinet committees
- Because increase in scale of gov’t not matched by increase in cabinet
[e.g., National Security Council, EU Exit Strategy, Covid-19 strategy]
- Membership of some committees as large as Cabinet itself
Cabinet secretary
- Established in 1917 to help committees (and Gov’t) work efficiently
- Can be very powerful, but can also clash with leanings of politically appointed advisers
What is the civil service?
- Permanent and impartial officers
Duties of civil service
- Deliver services
- Support ministers
- Implement programmes and projects
New legal base - civil service
- Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010
- Now around 485,000 civil servants - increasing
- Serve at pleasure of Crown, so legal remedies for dismissal? Common law employment protection
Civil service structure
Undergone major change since 1980s due to cost and efficiency
Role of civil servant within department
- Senior Civil Service ‘run’ department: Permanent Secretary
Explain the Carltong principle
Where an administrative discretionary power exists for a Minister, in general a Civil Servant in that department may make the decision on behalf of the Minister
Special Advisers (SPADS)
- Political appointments
- Development of gov’t policy + its presentation
- Unlike civil servants, involved in party-political matters
- Their appointment needs approval by PM and is tied to Minister’s holding of office
