Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:26 pm on 15 November 2022.
Jack Sargeant
Labour
2:26,
15 November 2022
I thank the First Minister for that answer, and I'm grateful for the commitment from the Ministers in your Cabinet. Llywydd, I have declared an interest with this question because of my committed and continued involvement with the Wales disinvestment campaign, but the clock is ticking, First Minister, on the time that we have to avoid serious environmental catastrophe and the chaos, hunger and conflict that come with it. Huge amounts of our public sector pension money continue to be invested within fossil fuels, and I'm grateful to colleagues within the Senedd for the support for my motion earlier this year. If Wales does set these targets and public sector pension schemes disinvest by 2030, we would be the first nation in the world to do so.
First Minister, today we celebrate 100 years of Labour winning in Wales. We are still bold and we are still ambitious, and we have to be the bold and ambitious party so that our future generations and our younger generations, like those from Hawarden High School in my Constituency in the gallery today, can go on to live successful lives in a sustainable world. First Minister, will you meet with me and fellow campaigners to discuss further how we can progress this bold proposal?
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.
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.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
