Part of Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation – in the House of Commons at 2:31 pm on 20 November 2018.
John Bercow
Chair, Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, Speaker of the House of Commons, Chair, Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, Chair, Commons Reference Group on Representation and Inclusion Committee, Chair, Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, Chair, Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, Chair, Commons Reference Group on Representation and Inclusion Committee
2:31,
20 November 2018
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order, and for his characteristic courtesy in giving me advance notice of his intention to raise it. The answer is twofold. First, I have received no indication that the Secretary of State or any other Minister in the Department intends to make an oral statement on the matter. Secondly, if the hon. Gentleman is dissatisfied, as he has indicated he is, there are avenues open to him to try to secure attention to the issue in the Chamber. As an experienced and versatile Member of this House, he will know what those avenues are. I suppose I should add, in parenthesis, in respect of his dissatisfaction, that every Member is responsible for the accuracy and veracity of what he or she says in the Chamber, and that if the Minister judges that an error has been made, it is incumbent on the Minister to correct the record. I feel sure that the hon. Gentleman, who is nothing if not a persistent scrutineer of the Executive, will keep his beady eye on this matter.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
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.
