Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:06 pm on 3 May 2017.
Mark Drakeford
Labour
2:06,
3 May 2017
Can I agree with the Member that it’s been a real strength of the Cardiff capital city deal that councils of different political persuasions have been able to come together, have been able to agree on a form of decision making that means that they are able to speak with a single voice on matters that are of a more than local significance and matter to people right across the region? That is especially true in relation to transport. The south Wales metro is one of those genuinely transformative projects. It relies on local authorities taking action, it relies on the Welsh Government playing its part, it has £105 million-worth of central Government money dedicated to it, and in order to make sure that we make the very best use of that opportunity, we have to be able to demonstrate an ability to work across local authority boundaries and across levels of Government as well. The Welsh Government will do everything we can, after tomorrow, when we know the new landscape of local government across Wales, to work with those partners to make sure that, together, we can make something very significant happen for the population of this part of Wales.
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.