Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 17 July 2024.
Sam Rowlands
Conservative
2:32,
17 July 2024
Diolch, Llywydd. I’m grateful to Jack Sargeant for raising this important question here today with the Cabinet Secretary. Cabinet Secretary, you talk about your work with the UK Government, and you know full well that the last UK Government—the Conservative Government—provided rate relief of 75 per cent to our pubs and hospitality industry in England and passed that money on to you, as the Welsh Government, to enable the same level of relief for our pubs here in Wales. You decided not to do that. Pubs here in Wales get 40 per cent rate relief, and therefore are at a competitive disadvantage compared to companies just over the border. So, if you’re really serious about supporting this industry, why don’t you just get that rate relief back up to 75 per cent?
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.
