Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 13 December 2018.
Frank Field
Chair, Work and Pensions Committee, Chair, Work and Pensions Committee
To ask the Cabinet Office, whether all members of the Government who attend Cabinet meetings have had access to the legal opinion on the Withdrawal Agreement.
David Lidington
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
On 5 December, the Government published the Attorney General’s advice to Cabinet on the legal effect of the Withdrawal Agreement. This is the final advice, in full, that the Attorney General provided to all members of the Cabinet on 14 November.
Cabinet Ministers have had all the necessary materials to take informed collective decisions on the UK’s withdrawal from, and future relationship with, the EU.
Yes1 person thinks so
No1 person thinks not
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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.
The Attorney General, assisted by the Solicitor General, is the chief legal adviser to the Government. The Attorney General also has certain public interest functions, for example, in taking action to protect charities.
The Attorney General has overall responsibility for The Treasury Solicitor's Department, superintends the Director of Public Prosecutions as head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland. The Law Officers answer for these Departments in Parliament.
The Attorney General and the Solicitor General also deal with questions of law arising on Government Bills and with issues of legal policy. They are concerned with all major international and domestic litigation involving the Government and questions of European Community and International Law as they may affect Her Majesty's Government.
see also, http://www.lslo.gov.uk/
