Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:54 pm on 13 July 2016.
Paul Davies
Conservative
2:54,
13 July 2016
Cabinet Secretary, you won’t be surprised to hear me say that my constituents’ priorities are to reintroduce the special care baby unit and full-time paediatric services at Withybush hospital. However, you’ve made it quite clear that the Welsh Government’s changes to services at Withybush hospital have come about as a result of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health review, which concluded that there was no harm facing patients in Pembrokeshire. But I put it to you that, in order to be meaningful, the review should have collated and collected a large pool of data over a significant period of time before concluding that there is no harm facing patients. Therefore, in the circumstances, what plans does the Welsh Government have to conduct more research into this matter so that the statistical evidence is fully reliable, because I believe that the changes that have been made are unsafe for the people that I represent?
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
