Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:48 pm on 5 July 2017.
Mark Drakeford
Labour
1:48,
5 July 2017
Well, Llywydd, I’m very familiar with the guidelines that the Member has just read out, because in relation to the mutual investment model, that is exactly the position that the ONS have taken. They have provided us with a general view that the model, as we have developed it, would not end up with classification on the public books, but reserve the right, in any particular project that we then take forward through that model—whether it be Velindre or the Heads of the Valleys or whatever it might be—to give us a separate ruling in relation to that project. So, the methodology that Adam Price has read out is exactly the way that the ONS goes about its business.
The Government was satisfied, Llywydd, from the advice that we received, that the risk of classification to the public books of the project as presented to the Government was too great for us to proceed on the basis that that had been set out.
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.
