Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 11 June 2024.
Vaughan Gething
Labour
2:21,
11 June 2024
I think it's a fair point the Member raises about how members of the public can contact NRW and actually have a response that demonstrates that the issue they raise has been taken seriously, and then the ability of NRW as the regulator to be able to act on that information as well. There are always challenges about resources. It's an undeniable fact that, over the last 14 years, we have taken money out of services we'd rather invest in. I'm interested in what a new partnership would look like, but, equally, how we get the best out of the resources we have, which I think is really the Member's point in the Member's question. I'd be grateful if he'd write to the Cabinet Secretary for rural affairs and climate change to understand the particular issues his constituents have, to see if there is more we can do with NRW to make sure they're able to respond to the concerns that his constituents will raise. I'd expect that if his constituents are raising issues, then others will have similar concerns that we'd want to understand how we can take forward.
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.
