Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 5 July 2017.
Mark Drakeford
Labour
1:57,
5 July 2017
Thank you, Llywydd. Well, Gareth Bennett will be aware—I know, because he’s raised it with me before—that our white paper makes a series of proposals that will place greater obligations on local authorities, both to broadcast their proceedings and to make their proceedings available to the public. Those parts of the White Paper, I think, were broadly welcomed in the consultation. We have relied, to an extent, on encouragement in this field in the past. The local government Bill will give us an opportunity to legislate to make sure that standards of openness and accessibility that exist in very many of our councils are made available in them all.
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.
A document issued by the Government laying out its policy, or proposed policy, on a topic of current concern.Although a white paper may occasion consultation as to the details of new legislation, it does signify a clear intention on the part of a government to pass new law. This is a contrast with green papers, which are issued less frequently, are more open-ended and may merely propose a strategy to be implemented in the details of other legislation.
More from wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_paper
