Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Education – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 2:00 pm on 25 June 2024.
Paul Givan
DUP
2:00,
25 June 2024
Yes. I am not aware of any examples of where we have not. We will publish the report, and I would welcome feedback from the PAC, which carries out important work in looking across the Executive to identify where things can be improved. However, I repeat the earlier point: we should not require legislation to force Departments to work together. The Executive have been showing that, where we can work together, we are able to do so successfully. Can things be improved? Yes, they can.
Just this morning, I met Caleb's mother, Alma White. We talked about the campaign to do with Caleb, and I know that Conor Murphy, the Economy Minister, spoke about that yesterday. The Economy Minister, the Health Minister and I need to work in collaboration on how we can meet the needs of post-19 provision. That sits across different Departments, and we should not need legislation to make us work together. As I gave a commitment in that meeting that I would work collaboratively with ministerial colleagues, I will do so, because we need to make sure that we act together. Legislation should not be required to force Ministers to do that, and I am glad that we in the Executive are able to get on with the job and try to do our best for people.
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.