Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:45 pm on 5 July 2017.
Mark Drakeford
Labour
1:45,
5 July 2017
Well, the reason, Llywydd, that I said to the Finance Committee this morning that I didn’t think the decision in relation to the Circuit of Wales had a direct bearing on the mutual investment model the Welsh Government has put together is a matter of timing as much as anything else. The one preceded the other. We had already developed our mutual investment model. I had already made a statement on the floor of the Assembly here about it and answered questions about it, and we had already had to submit that model to the ONS and to Eurostat to allow ourselves to be satisfied that the way that that mutual investment model had been structured did not run a significant risk of those projects to be encompassed within it ending up on the public balance sheets. We did that, as you know, very much in the light of the Scottish Government experience, where their parallel model has ended up with many, many, many millions of pounds having to be found directly from public capital. So, that work is completed, and we’ve taken that advice. In that sense, I do not believe that it has to be revisited in the light of a completely separate project.
As to the Member’s detailed questions as to where advice was sought, I don’t have that information with me. I do know that the information and advice that came from those who had taken that advice was that the risk of the Circuit of Wales being classified to the public accounts was very significant, and that that would have had a very major bearing on the Welsh Government’s ability to carry out the capital investment projects that we have already announced and are committed to providing in 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.