Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:28 pm on 17 May 2017.
Vaughan Gething
Labour
2:28,
17 May 2017
I recognise some of the points that he’s made, as does the service. We invest significant amounts of capital in providing the latest diagnostic equipment. It is important we make best use of it and understand what it’s potentially useful for. For example, I visited equipment that was required for one purpose, but it was actually able to deal with different diagnostic tests. So, it’s well understood in the service, and that’s part of the broader point about what reform does mean. It doesn’t just mean reorganising the physical location of services in primary and secondary care. It also means making the best and most efficient use of the assets that we already have—those are the staff and the equipment that we have. So, your point is well made and well understood by the service.
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.
