United Kingdom cabinet committee

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The executive arm of the United Kingdom government is controlled by the Cabinet, a group of senior government ministers chaired by the Prime Minister. The Cabinet has a group of sub-committees called cabinet committees, which perform most of the day-to-day work of cabinet government.

The committee structure and membership is at the discretion of the Prime Minister, and there have been many changes since the Cabinet committee system was first developed in the early twentieth century. Although names of committees have changed, the committees for foreign and military policy, domestic policy, economic policy, and the government's legislative agenda have been more or less permanent fixtures. Some committees are standing committees, which have a broad remit; others are ad-hoc committees, which are established to deal with specific matters.

Ad-hoc committees, presently using the "MISC" prefix, are rarer now than throughout most of the twentieth century. In 1951 there were 313 [1]; James Callaghan created 160 during his three-year tenure[2]; but the present count is only six (with one subcommittee).

Contents

[edit] Membership

Committee membership is limited to ministers, but non-ministers may attend some committees. For example, the NSID(I) committee reviews policy for the security and intelligence services, and the heads of those services are "invited to attend as necessary"[3]; in practice, this may mean that they go to most or all of the meetings. The Civil Contingencies Committee (CCC) is a special case since it meets on an emergency basis and its membership depends on the nature of the emergency. Former committees with non-ministers as full members include the Economic Advisory Council, whose membership was made up of a combination of ministers and experts in economics. The Committee of Imperial Defence, a parallel Cabinet for military policy which existed from 1904 until 1939, included ministers, heads of the armed services, and civil servants [4].

Until 1992, the list of cabinet committees, their membership, and their terms of reference were secret, with rare exceptions. During the Second World War, details of the War Cabinet structure were communicated to Parliament [5]; Winston Churchill had previously announced a Standing Committee on National Expenditure in his 1925 Budget statement[6]. The existence and membership of the Defence and Overseas Policy Committee was announced in 1963, coinciding with the amalgamation of the service ministries into a single Ministry of Defence [7]. Margaret Thatcher confirmed the continuing existence of this committee in the House of Commons in 1979, along with standing committees for Economic Strategy, Home and Social Affairs, and Legislation.

It had been generally thought that public knowledge of Cabinet procedure would lead to a loss of faith in collective responsibility (since decisions would be revealed as having been taken by only a subset of the Cabinet) and undue pressure being put on committee chairs once it was known which policy areas they had specific responsibility for [1].

The parallel committees for civil servants follow a thirty-year secrecy rule with respect to their existence and membership [2].

[edit] Cabinet papers

Committee minutes and papers follow the same secrecy rules as for the full Cabinet[1]. Documents are generally handled on a need-to-know basis, and so may not be available to ministers who do not serve on the relevant committee. Some materials may be classified as being available exclusively to the named members of the committee, and particularly sensitive papers may be kept in a secure room and read only under supervision. Papers may be distributed physically or electronically (via the Government Secure Intranet). [8] Notes taken at meetings for the purpose of preparing the official minutes are destroyed once the minutes have been written [9].

Future governments may not be permitted to see the cabinet papers of their predecessors, if there has been a change of party. Access in this case requires the approval of the former Prime Minister, or of the Leader of the Opposition. The few exceptions relate to papers of an expressly non-political nature, such as legal advice or international agreements. Retired ministers wishing to write their memoirs are given access to papers from their tenure, but are usually forbidden from removing them from the Cabinet Office archive.

[edit] Committees with special functions

Most committees exist for the coordination of policy in some specific area. Some committees, however, have a special role in managing government business, and accordingly have different procedures.

The PSX committee plays a central role in the Budget process and the allocation of government money to departments. It originated in the 1980s under the informal title of "Star Chamber" as an ad-hoc committee which could handle appeals over spending disputes, rather than having these be dealt with by the full Cabinet. An appeal to the full Cabinet was still possible, but rarely exercised. The committee was made permanent under John Major, under the name "EDX", and placed under the chairmanship of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Since 1998 the same committee (by then called "PX") has also held a scrutiny and audit authority over departments[2]. The original name refers to the Star Chamber court noted for its secret, arbitrary and brutal decisions.

The Legislation committee allocates time for government bills to be considered in Parliament, coordinates the writing and handling of these bills in general, and is responsible for the Queen's Speech. Previously, there had been two committees, one for considering future legislation and another to deal with bills during their passage through Parliament[10]. Departments who wish to make new primary legislation must apply to the committee for a slot in the legislative programme [11].

The Civil Contingencies Committee is another special case, since it operates during an emergency

[edit] List of committees

  • NEC: National Economic Council
    • NEC(BR): Better Regulation
  • DRC: Democratic Renewal Council
  • DPC: Domestic Policy Council
  • DA: Domestic Affairs
    • DA(BM): Border and Migration
    • DA(CE): Communities and Equalities
    • DA(DM): Data Management
    • DA(F): Food
    • DA(FCY): Families, Children and Young People
    • DA(HW): Health and Wellbeing
    • DA(JC): Justice and Crime
    • DA(LGR): Local Government and the Regions
    • DA(PED): Public Engagement and the Delivery of Services
  • LC: Life Chances
    • LC(SE): Social Exclusion
    • LC(TE): Talent and Enterprise
  • ED: Economic Development
    • ED(EE): Environment and Energy
    • ED(HPR): Housing, Planning and Regeneration
    • ED(OPG): Olympic and Paralympic Games
    • ED(PSE): Productivity, Skills and Employment
    • ED(SI): Science and Innovation
  • CN: Constitution
  • NSID: National Security, International Relations and Development
    • NSID(EU): Europe
    • NSID(NS): Nuclear Security
    • NSID(OD): Overseas and Defence
    • NSID(OD)(A): Africa
    • NSID(OD)(A&P): Afghanistan and Pakistan
    • NSID(OD)(T): Trade
    • NSID(PSR): Protective Security and Resilience
    • NSID(E): Tackling Extremism
    • NSID(I): Intelligence
  • CCC: Civil Contingencies Committee
  • L: Legislation
  • PSX: Public Services and Public Expenditure
    • PSX(P): Public Sector Pay and Pensions

Ad-hoc committees:

  • MISC32: Pandemic Influenza Planning
  • MISC33: Post Office Network
  • MISC35: Ageing
  • MISC36: Flood planning
  • MISC37: The third sector
  • PM's ad hoc committee on international climate change
    • Subcommittee on international climate change negotiations

[edit] Historical statistics

An approximate count of committees up to and during the Second World War was given by Wilson[4] as follows.

Period Parent body Number of committees Aggregate number of meetings
1917-1922 Cabinet 160 990
Committee of Imperial Defence 11 120
1923-September 1939 Cabinet 379 1990
Committee of Imperial Defence 275 3400
Committee on Civil Research and Economic Advisory Council 70 900
September 1939-July 1945 War Cabinet 292 5440
Chiefs of Staff 45 3050
Ad-hoc committees 90 210

This excludes committees which did not have at least one meeting (several of these existed solely as a means for documents to be circulated among the members). The 1939-45 figures do not include the Joint Intelligence Committee, Joint Planning Staff, or the Combined Chiefs of Staff.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Brazier, David (1999). Constitutional Practice: The Foundations of British Government. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198298120. 
  2. ^ a b c James, Simon (1999). British Cabinet Government. Routledge. ISBN 9780415179775. 
  3. ^ Ministerial Committee on the Security and Intelligence Services
  4. ^ a b Wilson, Stephen (1975). The Cabinet Office to 1945. HMSO. 
  5. ^ HC Deb 04 June 1940 vol 361 cols 768-771
  6. ^ HC Deb 28 April 1925 vol 183 cols 58-60
  7. ^ Command Paper 2097 (1963). Central Organisation for Defence.
  8. ^ Cabinet Document Officers' Handbook (73kb PDF)
  9. ^ HL Deb 03 February 1994 vol 551 cc103–4 WA
  10. ^ Mackintosh, John (1991). The British Cabinet. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780416313802. 
  11. ^ Guide to Making Legislation, Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat, Cabinet Office

[edit] External links

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