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Ministerial responsibility Chapter 2.3 - Coggle Diagram
Ministerial responsibility
Chapter 2.3
Individual ministerial responsibility
The principle by which ministers are responsible for their personal conduct and for their departments, the official definition is set out in a document known as the Ministerial Code
What does it mean for ministers?
Ministers are obliged to give accurate information to parliament and if they knowingly mislead parliament they are respected to resign
Ministers are responsible for deciding how to conduct themselves and only remain in office for as long as the retain the confidence of the PM
How has the concept changed?
Today the business of government is so large on complex, ministers cannot be expected to know pf everything that goes on, so won't be expected to resign over minor mistakes
Debate over who is accountable, blurring of lines e.g since the late 1980s many government functions have been delegated to executive agenncies rather than a minster
Today, in some cases civil servants rather ministers have been held accountable
Professor Bogdanor argued that ministers were responsible for ensuring that officials had the necessary skills to carry out the work of the department
Personal misconduct is a more common cause of resignations. Impression has been cause enough
Ministers fate depends on:
How serious the issue is perceived to be
The level of criticism in parliament and the media when the mistake is made
The attitude of the PM
Collective ministerial responsibility
Principle by which ministers must support Cabinet decisions or leave the executive
What does it mean for ministers?
They are responsible as a group to parliament and the people
Ministers are free to argue their case with each other in private but once a decision has been reached it is binding on them all
If a minister cannot accept a decision, in theory they should resign
Designed to maintain the unity of government in the face of attacks by the opposition
Simple resignations on grounds of disagreement with government policy are quite rare in practise as it would end a political career
Exceptions to collective responsibility
There have been occasions when collective responsibility has been modified for political reasons. Mostly in order to maintain unity.
Responsibility is a convention not a law