Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 21 February 2022.
Kieran Mullan
Conservative, Crewe and Nantwich
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the Veterans' Strategy Action Plan: 2022 to 2024.
Leo Docherty
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (jointly with the Ministry of Defence)
The development of the Veterans Strategy Action Plan 2022-24 was launched at a Cabinet meeting in Summer 2021, and Ministers have engaged with Cabinet colleagues over the course of the process. Ministers regularly discuss veterans issues including through the Ministerial Covenant and Veterans Board, which is co-chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
The Veterans’ Strategy Action Plan 2022-2024 contains over 60 commitments worth over £70m from a range of government departments, all contributing to the Government’s mission to make the UK the best place in the world to be a veteran by 2028. We continue to monitor progress against delivering the Action Plan commitments and will do so until the end of the Action Plan period in 2024.
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 Chancellor - also known as "Chancellor of the Exchequer" is responsible as a Minister for the treasury, and for the country's economy. For Example, the Chancellor set taxes and tax rates. The Chancellor is the only MP allowed to drink Alcohol in the House of Commons; s/he is permitted an alcoholic drink while delivering the budget.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
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.
