Writing a Cabinet Committee Paper
The Cabinet Secretariat will insert the correct header and reference number for your Cabinet Committee paper. However, it helps if those drafting papers can follow a few basic rules:
- stick to the basic structure and formatting guidance set out below;
- keep paper as short and as focused as possible – Cabinet Committee papers should
- not exceed three pages, so if necessary put background detail in an annex. The Secretariat may refuse to accept a paper if it is too long;
- do not use unexplained acronyms or jargon;
- number your paragraphs;
- make sure it is clear to Ministers at the beginning of the paper and throughout what the paper is about and what it is asking them to do;
- ensure any issues which you know are of particular interest to Ministers are reflected in the paper;
- agree any proposals involving public expenditure commitments with HM Treasury before submitting the paper for discussion or objectively highlight any outstanding differences in opinion;
- and consult other departments with an interest in the subject of the paper early on. No paper should come as a surprise to a department.
TITLE OF PAPER
Paper by the [insert the title of the Minister presenting the paper]
Summary
- Summarise the content of the paper. It should be clear to Ministers at a glance what the paper is about.
Recommendation
- Set out in bullet points what action you recommend the Committee takes as a result of the paper. Eg “Ministers are invited to …”:
- agree a policy recommendation or decide between a series of recommendations;
- note a particular situation (for example, progress against delivery of a Public Service Agreement (PSA); or
- agree a programme of future work.
If the issues are straightforward, you may want to combine the ‘Summary’ and ‘Recommendation’ sections.
Consideration
- This is the body of the paper; it should expand on the issues outlined in the ‘Summary’ including the relevant background/evidence/argument that led you to your recommendation. If you need to include detailed factual material, consider putting it in an annex. It may be helpful to organise the ‘Consideration’ into subsections to help Ministers find their way around the paper.
- Where appropriate, refer to dissenting views and/or negative results, so Ministers receive a balanced picture. Where a department has a disagreement with the department preparing the paper, the paper should set this out in a neutral way.
- You should cover the main considerations Ministers need to bear in mind in reaching a decision. Please see the checklist in this guide for more details on specific issues which may be relevant.
- Finally, bear in mind that some Ministers will be more expert in your subject than others. Consider how to handle this in your paper. For example, if your subject is technical, footnotes can help to explain a point to the uninitiated without disrupting the flow of the text.
Formatting guidance
Please apply the following rules to all Cabinet Committee documents
- All margins should be 2.54 cm. (in Word go to File, then Page Setup, then Margins, then type 2.54 into all four boxes)
- The font should be Arial. (press Ctrl and A to highlight the whole document, then right click on the mouse and go to Font)
- The font size should be 12pts. (press Ctrl and A to highlight the whole document, then right click on the mouse and go to Font)
- The line spacing should be 1.5 lines. (press Ctrl and A to highlight the whole document, then right click on the mouse and go to Paragraph, then Indents and Spacing, then adjust the drop down line spacing box to 1.5 lines)
- All Cabinet Committee papers should as a minimum be classified as RESTRICTED
