Oral Answers to Questions — Civil Service – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 10 June 1991.
Mr Tony Banks
, Newham North West
12:00,
10 June 1991
To ask the Minister for the Civil Service how many former press officers have been vetted by the business appointments committee for subsequent employment in the last 12 months.
Mr Timothy Renton
, Mid Sussex
It is not our practice to provide detailed information of this kind about the operation of business appointment rules. Individual applications are received and treated in confidence.
Mr Tony Banks
, Newham North West
Would it not be appropriate for Sir Bernard Ingham to be vetted as a former press officer—preferably with two bricks? After all, he played the role of Deputy prime minister, undermined democratically elected Cabinet Ministers, contravened the Official Secrets Act and knows where all the bodies are buried. Is it not outrageous that he can go outside the civil service and earn vast amounts of money for those misdeeds?
Mr Timothy Renton
, Mid Sussex
I appreciate that the hon. Gentleman has a lot of fun asking such a question, but for two years Sir Bernard Ingham cannot take up any outside commercial appointment without first seeking approval and without the application being scrutinised by the advisory committee on business appointments, which is chaired by Lord Carlisle.
Mr Michael Marshall
, Arundel
Is it not true that, subject to the appropriate vetting to which my right hon. Friend referred, there is every incentive to allow senior civil servants to move into industry? We need more interchange between the civil service and the private sector. One of our great national failings is that there is not enough.
Mr Timothy Renton
, Mid Sussex
I agree with my hon. Friend. There is much more interchange between the private sector and the civil service in France, permitting a much more balanced and wide-ranging career structure. Interchange is to be encouraged.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The office of Deputy Prime Minister is one that has only existed occasionally in the history of the United Kingdom. Unlike analogous offices in other nations, the Deputy Prime Minister does not have any of the powers of the Prime Minister in the latter's absence and there is no presumption that the Deputy Prime Minister will succeed the Prime Minister.
The post has existed intermittently and there have been a number of disputed occasions as to whether or not the title has actually been conferred.
More from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deputy_Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom
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.
