Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 10:19 pm on 7 July 2009.
David Davis
Conservative, Haltemprice and Howden
10:19,
7 July 2009
I thank the Minister for his earlier comments about my non-partisan approach to dealing with terrorism—it is the standard. I cannot give him the evidence behind these cases, for the reasons that I gave earlier; I can simply say to him that I am confident of the facts. He does not wish to comment on the detail, but may I bring him back to a general point? One of the things that the Prime Minister has said is that he will put in the public domain the new guidelines on torture. Will the Minister undertake, tonight, to put in the public domain the current guidelines?
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.
