Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:02 pm on 8 March 2017.
Steffan Lewis
Plaid Cymru
2:02,
8 March 2017
I thank the Cabinet Secretary for her answer. I have to declare an interest as the species champion for the shrill carder bee, an important part of the Gwent ecosystem. The Cabinet Secretary, I’m sure, appreciates the importance of public parks to our ecosystem and to its habitats, and she’ll be aware I’m sure of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s ‘State of UK Public Parks 2016’ report last year, which reported that Wales was anticipating the highest percentage reduction to staff, as well as the greatest proportion of declining parks. No park managers in Wales expect to have parks that are improving in condition in the next three years. What could she say to reassure me that that is absolutely not the case?
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.
