Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 2:43 pm on 29 February 2008.
Sarah Teather
Shadow Secretary of State (Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform)
2:43,
29 February 2008
I thank the Minister for giving way so soon. Are not the categories of prevention and detection of crime quite broadly drawn? They do not rule out the possibility of making investigations into ethnic identification or behavioural genetics, for example. Very little information is available to the public, who may wish to scrutinise the research being conducted, on exactly what that research constitutes.
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.
