Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:01 pm on 24 January 2017.
Darren Millar
Conservative
5:01,
24 January 2017
This is my final, final point. I have to say, Cabinet Secretary, I’ve been an Assembly Member for 10 years now and not one person has ever, on the doorstep, and not one teacher, either, has ever spoken to me to say that class size is the pressing issue that we need to address in Wales. And I have to say, I agree with Julie Morgan on that: no-one has spoken to her, either, in the years that she has been an MP or AM. So I wonder where this pressing issue is in your postbag, because there’s no evidence of it in mine.
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.
