Cabinet of the United Kingdom

In the Politics of the United Kingdom, the Cabinet is a formal body comprised of government officials chosen by the Prime Minister. Most members are the most senior government ministers, mainly heads of government departments with the title "Secretary of State". Formal members of the cabinet are drawn exclusively from either house of Parliament.

Relationship with Parliament

Two key constitutional conventions regarding the accountability of the cabinet to Parliament exist, collective cabinet responsibility and individual ministerial responsibility. These are derived from the fact the members of the cabinet are members of Parliament, and therefore accountable to it, because Parliament is sovereign. Cabinet collective responsibility means that members of the cabinet make decisions collectively, and are therefore responsible for the consequences of these decisions collectively. Therefore, when a vote of no confidence is passed in Parliament, every minister and government official drawn from Parliament automatically resign in their role as the executive, the entire executive is dismissed. So logically, cabinet ministers that disagree with major decisions are expected to resign, as to take a recent example, Robin Cook did over the decision to attack Iraq in 2003.

Related Topics:
Sovereign - Vote of no confidence - Robin Cook - 2003

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Individual ministerial responsibility is the convention that in their capacity as head of department, a minister is responsible for the actions, and therefore the failings too of their department. Since the civil service is permanent and anonymous, under circumstances of gross incompetance in their department, a minister 'must' resign. Perhaps surprisingly, this is relatively rare in practice, perhaps because, whilst many would consider incompetence more harmful than personal scandal, it is of less interest to more populist elements of the media, and less susceptible to unequivocal proof. The closest example in recent years is perhaps Estelle Morris who resigned as Secretary of State for Education and Skills in 2002 of her own volition (following severe problems and inaccuracies in the marking of A-level exams). The circumstances under which this convention is followed are of course not possible to strictly define, and depend on many other factors. If a minister's reputation is seen to be tarnished by a personal scandal (for example when it was revealed that David Mellor had an extra-marital affair) they very often resign, often as the result of a short period of intense media and opposition pressure for them to do so. In general, despite numerous scandals, cases of serious corruption (e.g. acceptance of bribes) are relatively rare in Britain in comparison with many other democracies. One reason is because of the strength of the whip system and political parties in comparison to individual politicans means MPs and ministers have little capacity to be influenced by external groups offering money.

Related Topics:
Estelle Morris - Secretary of State for Education and Skills - A-level - David Mellor

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Questions can be tabled for Cabinet ministers in either houses of Parliament (a process called interpellation in political science), which can either be for written or oral reply. Cabinet ministers must answer them, either themselves or through a deputy. Written answers, which are usually more specific and detailed than oral questions are usually written by a civil servant. Answers to written and oral questions are published in Hansard. Parliament cannot dismiss individual ministers (though members may of course call for their resignation) but the House of Commons is able to determine the fate of the entire Government. If a vote of no confidence in the Government passes, then confidence must be restored either by a dissolution of Parliament and the election of a new one, or by the resignation of the Government collectively.

Related Topics:
Civil servant - Hansard - Vote of no confidence

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In the United Kingdom's parliamentary system, the executive is not separate from the legislature, since Cabinet members are drawn from Parliament. Moreover the executive tends to dominate the legislature for several reasons:

Related Topics:
Executive - Legislature

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• the first-past-the-post voting system (which tends to give a large majority to the governing party)
• the power of the Government Whips (whose role is to ensure party members vote in accordance with an agreed line)
• the "payroll vote" (a term which refers to the fact that members of the governing party who are on the government payroll (e.g. as junior ministers) would be dismissed if they voted against the government).

The combined effect of the Prime Minister's ability to control cabinet by circumventing effective discussion in Cabinet and the executive's ability to dominate parliamentary proceedings places the British Prime Minister in a position of great power that has been likened to an elective dictatorship (a phrase coined by Lord Hailsham in 1976). The relative impotence of Parliament to hold the Government of the day to account is often cited by the UK media as a justification for the vigour with which they question and challenge the Government.

Related Topics:
Elective dictatorship - Lord Hailsham - 1976

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