Cabinet and its Committees
This chapter is designed to provide you with some general information about
the purpose of Cabinet and its Committees. It also explains the principle
of collective responsibility.
The Cabinet reconciles Ministers' individual
responsibilities with their collective responsibility. It is the ultimate
arbiter of all Government policy.
Underneath Cabinet sits a structure of Cabinet Committees
, some of which have Sub-Committees. Cabinet Committees have two key
purposes.
-
To
relieve the burden on the Cabinet by
dealing with business that does not need to be discussed at full Cabinet.
Appeals to the Cabinet should be infrequent, and Ministers chairing
Cabinet Committees should exercise discretion in advising the Prime
Minister whether to allow them.
-
To
support the principle of collective
responsibility by ensuring that, even though a question may
never reach the Cabinet itself, it will be fully considered. In this way,
the final judgement is sufficiently authoritative that Government as a
whole can be expected to accept responsibility for it. In this sense,
Cabinet Committee decisions have the same authority as Cabinet decisions.
More broadly, Cabinet Committees provide a framework for collective
consideration of, and decisions on, major policy issues and questions of
significant public interest. They ensure that issues that are of interest
to more then one Department are properly discussed and that the views of
all relevant Ministers are considered.
The business of Cabinet and Cabinet Committees is mainly made up of the
following subjects.
-
The co-ordination of particularly complex Government business, such as
the legislative programme, constitutional issues and public expenditure;
-
Questions which significantly engage the collective responsibility of the
Government because they raise major policy issues, or are of critical
importance to the public;
-
Questions where there is an unresolved difference of opinion between
Departments.
The principle of collective responsibility
Government is a large and complex organisation. Like others, it needs
formal and informal mechanisms for discussing issues, building consensus,
taking decisions, resolving disputes and chasing progress.
Cabinet and Cabinet Committees are the only groups formally empowered to
taking binding decisions. They also provide a formal mechanism for the
other four purposes.
Cabinet and Cabinet Committees consist of Ministers, because only
Ministers, accountable to Parliament, can take binding decisions, though
others may be invited to attend.
At best, a Cabinet or Cabinet Committee decision is more than the sum of
its parts. Bringing the different knowledge and perspectives of
departments, and the varying judgement and experience of Ministers,
together enables Ministers to arrive at a much better outcome than would be
possible for any one Secretary of State. At a minimum, a decision is an
acceptable compromise.
Collective responsibility allows Ministers to express their views frankly
in discussion, in the expectation that they can maintain a united front
once a decision has been reached. Opinions expressed in Cabinet and Cabinet
Committees are therefore non-attributable.
Issues need to be brought to Cabinet or more likely a Committee if they are
inter-departmental or if they a sufficiently significant to require
collective sign off as a result of the doctrine of collective
responsibility. The two categories overlap but are distinct.
However this requires time. There is a trade off between the consequent
delay and the overlapping benefits of better decision making and the
doctrinal requirements. So 'big' decisions are taken collectively
but many small decisions are taken within a single department, sometimes
having consulted just the others with a direct interest.
Members of the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland are not bound by the collective responsibility which applies solely
to members of the UK Government.
Members of the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland are not bound by the collective responsibility which applies solely
to members of the UK Government and are not members of Cabinet Committees,
though they may be invited to attend.
Further information
For details of current Cabinet Committees and Sub-Committees, their
membership and terms of reference, please refer to the full list of
Cabinet Committees.
For more information on the different types of Cabinet Committee, please
read the section called
Types of Committee.
