Prime Minister and the Executive: Individual and Collective Ministerial Responsibility

Individual ministerial responsibility is a constitutional convention that requires ministers to accept responsibility for their actions and decisions as well as those of their department.
Ministers may resign for several reasons:
1. Policy Failure: They may resign if they are associated with a failed policy or program.
2. Scandals or Misleading Parliament: If a minister misleads parliament or gets involved in scandals that bring disrepute to the government, they are expected to resign.

Dugdale (1960s): Dugdale accepted full responsibility for the inefficiencies of his department and resigned.
Lord Carrington (1982): Resigned after the Falklands invasion due to the Foreign Office's lack of awareness.
Estelle Morris (2002): Resigned over the A-level grade-fixing scandal.
Amber Rudd (2018): Resigned for misleading Parliament regarding Home Office targets for illegal immigrant removals.
Matt Hancock (2021): Resigned after being caught violating COVID-19 regulations.
Suella Braverman (2022): Resigned over improper use of a personal email account.

Ministers may try to hold onto their positions by deflecting blame to officials or asserting that failures were part of a collective government policy (e.g., Michael Howard, Norman Lamont).

This principle states that all members of the government must publicly support all governmental decisions, even if they disagreed with them privately. If a minister cannot publicly support a decision, they are expected to resign.
A key aspect is that if the government loses a vote of confidence, it must resign.

Geoffrey Howe (1990): Resigned because he could no longer support Thatcher's policies, ultimately leading to her leadership challenge.
Robin Cook (2003): Resigned over the Iraq War preparations.
Boris Johnson (2018): Resigned from May's cabinet over the Chequers Agreement.
Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid (2022): Resigned to protest against Johnson's leadership style and integrity.

In specific contexts such as the EU referendum campaigns, the convention can be suspended, allowing cabinet members to disagree publicly.
Examples include when Harold Wilson allowed freedom in the 1975 EEC referendum and Theresa May in the 2016 Brexit negotiations.

Ministers are often expected to resign when caught in personal scandals due to the intense scrutiny by the media and the 24-hour news cycle.
Recent examples include John Profumo and Chris Huhne, who faced resignation due to personal conduct that brought disrepute to the government.

A prime minister with strong support can protect a minister facing criticism while a weakened prime minister may struggle to do so. Successive examples demonstrate this dynamic (Amber Rudd versus Priti Patel).
The role of the media and parliamentarians can also shift based on public perception and crisis situations.