Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 5 July 2017.
David Rowlands
UKIP
2:05,
5 July 2017
I thank the Cabinet Minister for that answer. But, following on from a number of comments you’ve made earlier, do you not agree that there have been many attempts to reform local government in Wales, including the aborted attempt to institute the Williams commission recommendations, and that the present arrangement of 22 local authorities has proved to be financially and strategically unacceptable? Quite apart from the fact that we have 22 chief executives on highly inflated salaries, with, of course, 22 sets of attendant staff, the authorities are not large enough to institute any infrastructure projects because their budgets are inadequate. So, does he not agree that we need real change to local government, not the incohesive arrangements now in place?
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.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
