Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 3:11 pm on 19 June 2024.
James Evans
Conservative
3:11,
19 June 2024
Cabinet Secretary, following up the question that I asked the First Minister a couple of weeks ago about capacity issues, I'd like to specifically enquire about the impact these may be having on land management agreements. I've had a number of meetings and correspondence with landowners in my Constituency who say there are delays in bringing land management agreements forward; they're not being signed, and NRW aren't acting upon them. They had been told by staff there that they simply do not have the legal capacity in the organisation or any expertise to do this any longer. Can you confirm if this is the case, because I did have it on good authority that NRW are not signing them because of capacity issues, and I do not think that it is good for our environment or good for sites of scientifically national interest if our land management agreements are not being signed? So, I'd like to know what you're doing about this, Cabinet Secretary, because the Welsh Government cannot keep giving Natural Resources Wales more and more work to do, and then turn away while Rome is burning.
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.
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
