Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 7 March 2017.
Mr Neil Hamilton
UKIP
1:40,
7 March 2017
Diolch, Lywydd. Whilst the First Minister was away last week, he may have seen that the Cabinet Secretary for finance wrote to the Chancellor of the exchequer about proposed public spending cuts in two or three years’ time, which set to amount to £3.5 billion. The Government, this year, is running a budget deficit equivalent to £60 billion. George Osborne managed the singular achievement of borrowing twice as much money in six years as Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling. The national debt is now £1,800 billion, compared with £1,200 billion six years ago. That’s £28,000 for every person in Wales—indeed, the United Kingdom. It’s very easy to spend money we haven’t got, of course, and everybody would like to be able to borrow interminably and never to have to pay it back. By how much does he think the Government’s borrowing requirement should increase on a permanent basis?
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.
The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
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.
