Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Constitutional Affairs – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 18 October 2005.
Philip Hollobone
Conservative, Kettering
2:30,
18 October 2005
This week the Prime Minister said that the criminal justice system was too complicated and laborious—comments with which many residents in the Kettering Constituency would agree. What proposals will the Minister introduce to speed up and simplify the criminal justice system?
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.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
