Cabinet Office written statement – made at on 1 March 2016.
John Penrose
The Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury, The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office wishes to report that a cash advance from the Contingencies Fund has been sought for the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman (referred to as the ‘Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration’ in the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 and the ‘Health Service Commissioner’ in the Health Services Commissioners Act 1993).
The advance has been sought to meet a cash requirement resulting from planned expenditure set out in Supplementary Estimates. As authority for the cash will not be granted until March with the passage of the Supply and Appropriation Act, and the Ombudsman has to settle some Bills before then, a Contingencies Fund advance has been requested.
Parliamentary approval for additional resources of £801,000 will be sought in a Supplementary Estimate for the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and the Health Service Commissioner for England. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £801,000 will be met by repayable cash advance from the Contingencies Fund.
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.
A proposal for new legislation that is debated by Parliament.
