Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 2:00 pm on 18 January 2016.
Arlene Foster
DUP
2:00,
18 January 2016
I thank the Member for her good wishes. As she will know, we agreed the racial equality strategy just before Christmas. It was long-awaited, but we are pleased that it is now in place and are hoping that the subgroup will meet in the near future to take it forward. We are looking at a refugee integration strategy as part of that racial equality strategy. It will sit alongside it.
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.
