Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:07 pm on 21 January 2025.
Jane Hutt
Labour
3:07,
21 January 2025
Thank you very much, Gareth, and thank you for raising this important issue. It is about early capture, as you say. That's what screening's purpose and objective is. And you've drawn attention to the screening for aneurysm with abdominal aneurysms in terms of screening for men, and now address the issue for women as well. I'm not sure what the situation, the status of that screening is in terms of national guidelines, but I will draw this to the attention of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care.
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.
