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Cabinet Office: Staff

Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 15 March 2024.

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Photo of Nicholas Fletcher Nicholas Fletcher Conservative, Don Valley

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) part-time and (b) full-time paid positions the a:gender staff network has; and what the cost to the public purse is of that network.

Photo of John Glen John Glen The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The costs (covering the period 2022-23) were £82,000. A decision has been made since then that no further funding will be provided.

Some of the information requested is being withheld because disclosure of that information would contravene one of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Specifically, we consider that disclosure of the information would contravene principle A under article 5(1)(a) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which requires that personal data should be processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently.

We have found that on balance the legitimate interest and necessity in disclosure are overridden by the reasonable expectations of privacy of the individual[s] concerned.

In this case, the numbers concerned are 5 individuals or fewer. We cannot provide details in such cases as the individuals concerned could be identifiable. This is standard statistical reporting.

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  • (Citation: HC Deb, 15 March 2024, 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.