Executive Power and the Core

Define prime minister

Head of government: leader of the party that commands the confidence of the Commons and appointed by the monarch

Define cabinet

The committee of around 20-25 senior ministers, chaired by the PM, that is formally the top decision-making body of government

Define primus inter pares

• ‘first among equals’

• The traditional idea that the PM is the most important member of a collective cabinet government

Define core executive

The network of institutions and people at the centre of government that coordinate policy

What is the Cabinet Manual (2011)?

Description of the laws, conventions, and rules of government in one place

Define piecemeal codification

Rules are written down but not entrenched and not enforced by any body independent of the executive

What are two parts of the executive?

• political executive

• Permanent executive

Define political executive

Made up of ~120 ministers

• its temporary, drawn form Parliament and usually from the governing party

Define permanent executive

• civil service

• +500,000 politically neutral officials who stay in post when government change

What is the ministerial ladder?

• cabinet ministers

• Ministers of state

• Parliamentary under secretaries

• Parliamentary private secretaries

What do cabinet ministers do?

They are secretaries of state who each head a department (e.g. Home Office)

What are ministers of state?

Middle-ranking ministers in a department with a policy brief (e.g. schools)

What are parliamentary under-secretaries?

Most junior ministers

What are parliamentary private secretaries?

Unpaid backbench MPs who act as a minister’s eyes and ears in the Commons.

• they’re not ministers but they’re bound by collective responsibility

Who are the centre of government?

• N.10 Downing Street

• Cabinet Office

• HM Treasury

• Cabinet Committees

Who is in N.10 Downing Street?

• PM’s own office

• Policy Unit

• Press operation

• Political special advisors, led by chief of staff

What does the cabinet office do?

Coordinates departments and runs cabinet committees

• led politically by Louise Haigh (First Secretary of State)

What does the HM Treasury do?

Controls public spending and taxation

• Chancellor’s power rivals the PM’s - every department needs its money

What are cabinet committees?

Smaller groups of ministers who settle policy in detail e.g. National Security Council

What does the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 say?

No more than 95 paid ministers may sit in the Commons

• PPSs and the government’s ’payroll vote’ is well over 100 MPs who must vote or resign

Name the three main powers of the executive

• royal prerogative

• Initiation of legislation

• Secondary legislation

Define prerogative powers

Personal powers of the monarch now conventionally passed to ministers who exercise it in the Crown’s name

• usually without needing Parliament’s approval

What do the royal prerogative powers include?

• patronage - appointing and dismissal of ministers. PM doesn’t need Senate confirmation, unlike US President

• Dissolution - since 2022 Act, monarch dissolves Parliament on the PM’s request, so PM can call an early election

What three things can limit the royal prerogative?

• the courts

• Statute law

• Conventions

How can the Courts limit royal prerogative?

The courts will review how it is used and will stop it being used to get round Parliament e.g. 2017 Miller Case - whether Executive or Parliament to had the power to invoke Article 50 for UK to leave the EU

How can statue law limit royal prerogative?

Converted some prerogatives into law e.g. the Governance Act 2010 lets the Commons delay the ratification of treaties

How can conventions limit royal prerogative?

• used to vote before wars e.g. Parliament voted before 2003 Iraq invasion (412-149)

• Yet convention is fragile as May bombed Syria in April 2018 without any prior vote

How can the executive use its power to initiate legislation?

• almost all significant legislation starts in the executive

• Under Standing Order 14 executive can control the Commons timetable as it takes priority most sitting days

Define framework laws

Skeleton laws that set out broad aims and let ministers fill in the details later through statutory instruments

How can the secondary legislation be a power for the executive?

• use of negative procedure - its law unless Houses object within 40 days

• Henry VIII powers - lets ministers amend or repeal Acts of Parliament by statutory instruments

What are the three routes into N.10?

• party leader can win a general election

• New leader an be chosen by the governing party in a contest during a parliament

• A leader can take over without a contest

What is the most common way a PM has been out of their role?

Been pushed out by their own party