– in the House of Commons at on 6 December 1920.
Viscount Curzon
, Battersea South
asked the Prime Minister how many meetings of the Committee of Imperial Defence have been held since the Armistice, and how many meetings of the same body have been held this year; and whether the forthcoming Naval, Military, and Air Force Estimates will be submitted to the Committee for consideration before being laid before Parliament?
Mr David Lloyd George
, Caernarvon District of Boroughs
The answer to the first and second part of the question is one meeting, though perhaps I should remind the hon. Member that, as the House has been informed on several occasions, by far the greater part of the work of the Committee of Imperial Defence is performed by Sub-committees and conferences of that Committee; as regards the last part of the question, I am not, at the present time, in a position to specify the method by which the Estimates in question will be considered by the Cabinet.
Mr Carlyon Bellairs
, Maidstone
Would it not facilitate the work of defence if the three staffs of the fighting Departments were to get together?
Mr David Lloyd George
, Caernarvon District of Boroughs
That is one of the suggestions which has not merely been considered but agreed to.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
