Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:00 pm on 15 March 2017.
Mark Drakeford
Labour
2:00,
15 March 2017
Bilateral contacts with UK Government are important. On the Brexit front, I met with the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union the week before last, and the First Minister met bilaterally with him last week. But these things are not, in the end, a substitute for the JMC process and, indeed, for a better, improved and substantially stepped up JMC process. The Scottish Minister for leaving the European Union said very explicitly to me that, despite the fact that they have a political set of ambitions that they hope to take forward in the way that the First Minister of Scotland has set out, Scotland intended to continue to be participating members of the JMC. Coming together in that way, where the four component parts of the United Kingdom share ideas and attempt to find common solutions to common problems, I think, is not to be sidelined by bilateral contacts. Bilateral contacts supplement them and are important, but they are not a substitute for them.
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.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
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.
