Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 15 March 2017.
Mark Drakeford
Labour
1:52,
15 March 2017
Well, Llywydd, I met Robert Chote, the head of the OBR, in Cardiff just before Christmas to discuss the work of the OBR and how it can capture data that are important to us in Wales. But, as Nick Ramsay will know, one of the key things that we secured in the fiscal framework was an independent stream of advice—independent of the OBR—that would come particularly from a Welsh perspective should we need to deploy that as part of the fiscal framework agreement. Part of the agreement was that we would secure independent scrutiny of the Welsh Government’s forecasts for the near future and I was pleased to issue a written statement to Members a few days ago, confirming that Bangor University has been successful in securing the contract to provide that independent oversight.
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.
