The cabinet

Role of cabinet ministers

-Collective responsibility

-Senior ministers and heads of government departments e.g. treasury, foreign office, home office

-MP or member of the lords

Collective responsibility

ministers must support cabinet decisions or resign from the government

Collective responsibility

• Secrecy

ministers must keep all details of discussion in the cabinet system secret

Collective responsibility

• Binding decisions

once a decision is reached it becomes binding on all ministers regardless of their position on the matter

Collective responsibility

• Confidence vote

government must resign if they lose a vote of confidence

James Callaghan 1979 confidence vote

lost a vote of confidence after its bill on Scottish devolution was defeated in the commons

Resignation of Robin Cook 2003

Resigned as leader of the house of commons day

Couldn’t accept collective responsibility over joining US in Iraq

Cabinet meetings

-frequency has dropped since 1950s

-meet once a week

-predetermined agenda and fixed seating

Blair cabinet meetings

-Blair meetings were only an hour as he did most of his meetings outside of the cabinet

How cabinets shape government policy

-most decisions within cabinet committees

ministerial committees, sub committees and ad hoc committees

implementation task forces

Cameron and May tracked progress on policies which crossed departmental boundaries

Great offices of state

-Prime minister

-chancellor of the exchequer

-Foreign secretary

-home secretary

cabinet office

-provides support for the cabinet system

-calls meetings prepares agenda

-registering and ratifying decisions