Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 14 February 2024.
Alex Burghart
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office
The Government does not have any plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of offering a free portrait of The King to registered charities.
The UK Government launched an Official Portrait scheme in November 2023 to enable certain Public Authorities across the UK to apply for a free, framed official portrait of His Majesty The King for display in their buildings.
The scheme is ongoing and is due for completion by mid year 2024. His Majesty’s accession has marked the beginning of a new reign and the UK Government considers it is right that public authorities, as part of the fabric of our nation, have the opportunity to commemorate this moment, strengthen civil pride and reflect the new era in our history.
Local authorities, court buildings, schools, police forces and fire and rescue services are among the public institutions across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, to be offered the new official photographic portrait of His Majesty, funded by the Government.
The scheme’s second phase will be open for applications from Town, Parish, City and Community Councils across UK and MoD sponsored Cadets from the 12th February.
A portrait will be available for purchase in due course for those not eligible for this scheme and details will be communicated at the time.
Yes5 people think so
No4 people think 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.
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.
Andrew Rosindell
Conservative, Romford