A service from mySociety A service from mySociety

TheyWorkForYou

Menu

Government Consulting Hub

Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 27 March 2023.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Angela Rayner Angela Rayner Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2023 to Question 165263 on Government Consulting Hub: Staff, for what reasons his Department closed the Government Consulting Hub.

Photo of Jeremy Quin Jeremy Quin The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The Government Consulting Hub (GCH) was established to ensure the government built more in-house capability.

We have made significant progress in this area on a number of fronts. A key focus of the GCH was to develop capability and ownership of this work across government to ensure this is embedded in the long-term.

The triage service, developed by GCH, has been transferred to the Crown Commercial Service, building on the work done by GCH with each department - this transition is a recognition of the maturity level of the service, which means it can now integrate with CCS work with consultancy procurement strategies across government. The very well received Consultancy Playbook, setting a new bar of how we get best value from external firms, operates alongside the suite of playbooks, owned and led by the Commercial Function.

The GCH capability programme, supporting civil servants to adopt consultancy type skills where appropriate, is now fully onboarded to Civil Service Learning, and will continue to be available to all civil servants. By improving these skills in the public sector, we can continue to ensure the government is only using consultants when absolutely necessary.

Does this answer the above question?

Yes2 people think so

No0 people think not

Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.

  • (Citation: HC Deb, 27 March 2023, cW)

Cabinet

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.

Minister

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.