Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 1 May 2024.
Sam Rowlands
Conservative
2:32,
1 May 2024
Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, this is my first opportunity to question you in my new role as Shadow health spokesperson and I'm certainly looking forward to our exchanges in this Chamber. I'm looking forward to working constructively with you on areas and on issues where I can, but also looking to hold you to account, and the Welsh Government to account, on areas that need improving.
One such area that I want to start on here today is around accident and emergency. Only yesterday, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board issued an urgent warning regarding the emergency unit at University Hospital Wales—the largest hospital in Wales—and that was on the same day, yesterday, that, in this place, we had four hours allocated for us to debate putting 36 more politicians in this Chamber at the cost of tens of millions of pounds. So, do you think you have the right priorities?
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.
The House of Commons.
The shadow cabinet is the name given to the group of senior members from the chief opposition party who would form the cabinet if they were to come to power after a General Election. Each member of the shadow cabinet is allocated responsibility for `shadowing' the work of one of the members of the real cabinet.
The Party Leader assigns specific portfolios according to the ability, seniority and popularity of the shadow cabinet's members.
