Home Department written question – answered at on 17 July 2013.
Tobias Ellwood
Conservative, Bournemouth East
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the role of the EU training co-ordinator in relation to emergency services is; and if she will make a statement.
Chloe Smith
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office
I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Cabinet Office.
The European Union Civil Protection. Mechanism and associated Financial Instrument enable a programme of twelve training courses to prepare personnel for roles in assessment or coordination teams as part of EU civil protection missions.
Each participating state has a national training coordinator who is responsible for identifying and managing the national system of experts enrolled in the EU training programme and nominating trained experts for EU missions and exercises.
The Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, as the UK's national contact point for EU civil protection fulfils the national training coordinator role, working closely with other Government Departments and the emergency services to identify and nominate potentially suitable candidates. Last year some 40 UK experts participated in such courses, most of whom were drawn from the emergency services.
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
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.
