Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 25 February 2025.
Anneliese Midgley
Labour, Knowsley
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to take steps to strengthen the powers of water regulators.
Emma Hardy
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues.
The AI (artificial intelligence) Opportunities Action Plan sets out how we will achieve our AI ambitions by laying the foundations for growth, driving adoption and building UK capabilities. We recognise that data centres face sustainability challenges, from energy demands to water use.
Through the AI Energy Council, we will be exploring bold, clean energy solutions from next-generation renewables to small modular reactors to ensure our AI ambitions align with the UK’s net zero goals. This builds on the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology’s contribution to make Britain a clean energy superpower by investing in relevant research on clean energy and climate change.
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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.
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.
