Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 5 July 2017.
Mark Drakeford
Labour
1:39,
5 July 2017
Well, Llywydd, I certainly agree that both city deals and a north Wales growth deal has to be more than just an argument about the sum of money. It has to be about a wider agenda of driving collaboration, speaking with a single voice on key ambitions. And with that may go devolution of some of the sort of responsibilities that Mark Isherwood just outlined. It will be for the proponents of the deal to make that case. Of course, I am aware of TIF and the way that it operates elsewhere. I met the Society of Welsh Treasurers in local government on Friday of last week and had a useful discussion with them about a range of these issues, including the potential for a shared-gain approach to growth in business rate receipts, where it is possible that local authorities coming together in these city and growth deals can demonstrate that there is an additional flow of income as a result of their combined efforts.
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.
