The Coe executive PART A

The Ministerial code

The Ministerial Code, as amended in 1995, places a clear demand on ministers to watch their behaviour carefully. Ministers must not knowingly mislead parliament and the public, and they should correct any inadvertent errors at the earliest opportunity. They must be as open as possible with parliament and the public, withholding information only when disclosure would not be in the public interest

Cabinet Committees

Are appointed by the Prime Minister to deal with aspects of government business.

Decisions made in Committee have full Cabinet authority and may not always be taken to the whole Cabinet for discussion

Task Forces

Bring together civil servants and outside experts to tackle issues that do not easily fit within the orbit of any one department.

An important innovation of the Blair government, they were designed to improve the quality of decision making in government and have been used to tackle issues such as football and disability rights

Privatisation

The Process of converting public amenities and services into private ones, a feature of Conservative economic policy in the 1980s and 1990s

Special advisers

Advisers appointed to provide political advice, assessment and support to ministers, offering an alternative perspective to those provided by civil servants.

Collective Cabinet Responsibility

Means that even if Ministers disagree with a decision, all members of cabinet will support that decision in public

Ministers of the Crown

MPs and peers appointed by the Prime Minister to the Government are known as Ministers of the Crown. After the Prime Minister, the next most senior Ministerial rank is that of Secretary of State (this includes the Chancellor and any Deputy Prime Minister).

Government

The Government is the institution that runs the country. It is also known as the Executive. The Government formulates policy and introduces legislation in Parliament. Members of the Government are usually either Members of the House of Commons or House of Lords. It is made up of the different departments run by ministers and is headed by the Prime Minister. The Government is formed by the party that gains the most seats in the House of Commons at a general election. The leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister selects the Members of the Government from MPs, Lords and very occasionally senior people outside Parliament. The Government does not make laws, Parliament makes laws. The Government can propose new laws in the form of Bills which it presents to Parliament for consideration. In practice, because the Government is formed from the largest party, the laws that it proposes are usually agreed by Parliament.

Government Departments

policy is made within government departments and these are located within the core executive

unit of Whitehall administration headed by ministers/staffed by civil servants

departments responsible for administration as well as policy making, changed role with development of Next Steps Agencies