(c) Explain who appoints government ministers.
The queen appoints the government ministers on the recommendation of the prime minister.
This is derived from the Royal Prerogative power, which means, in this case, sovereign power is exercised 'on the advice of ministers' – it is ministers and in most cases, the prime minister to make the necessary decisions.
Ministers, including prime minister, are Ministers of the Crown.
Showing posts with label MP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MP. Show all posts
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Issues related with central government - Her Majesty's Government (HMG) - part three
(b) How and why will the MP's freedom to criticise government policy be affected by the appointment and what conventions will now affect him/her?
The way that MP's freedom to criticise government policy will be affected by its appointment is explained as below.
Government ministers, particularly Cabinet ministers are expected to endorse and support publicly the actions of the government of which they are a part, even if they do not agree with them in private.
It has long been a custom for ministers to bite their tongues rather than speak out the opposed opinion.
The convention will now affect him/herself is collective responsibility.
It take that all Cabinet members take full responsibility for decisions made by the Cabinet even if a particular case an individual disagrees with, and even voted against, a decision.
No Cabinet members should publicly voice any dissent or doubt once a decision has been reached, no matter how fierce opposition was in the debate around the cabinet table.
Any Cabinet member who wants to distance him/herself from a decision is honour-bound to resign from his/her ministerial job, as Robin Cook did over the war in Iraq.
The way that MP's freedom to criticise government policy will be affected by its appointment is explained as below.
Government ministers, particularly Cabinet ministers are expected to endorse and support publicly the actions of the government of which they are a part, even if they do not agree with them in private.
It has long been a custom for ministers to bite their tongues rather than speak out the opposed opinion.
The convention will now affect him/herself is collective responsibility.
It take that all Cabinet members take full responsibility for decisions made by the Cabinet even if a particular case an individual disagrees with, and even voted against, a decision.
No Cabinet members should publicly voice any dissent or doubt once a decision has been reached, no matter how fierce opposition was in the debate around the cabinet table.
Any Cabinet member who wants to distance him/herself from a decision is honour-bound to resign from his/her ministerial job, as Robin Cook did over the war in Iraq.
Issues related with central government - Her Majesty's Government (HMG) - part two
3. You receive information that the Prime Minister has reshuffled the Government and as a result your local MP, who up until now was a backbencher and outspoken member of a select committee who had been critical of government policy, has become a junior minister.
(a) Explain what is meant by the terms Government, backbencher, select committee and junior minister.
Government: The government runs the country. It has responsibility for developing and implementing policy and for drafting laws. It is also known as the Executive.
The political party that wins the most seats in a general election forms the new government, led by their party leader - who becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister appoints ministers, including the Cabinet, who often work in a government department, and run and develop public services and policies.
Government ministers are chosen from MPs and Lords in Parliament. Your MP may be a member of the party forming the current Government, but it doesn't necessarily mean they are working 'in government'. The rest of the MPs and Lords who are not in government carry out the work of Parliament. Ministers must regularly respond to oral and written questions from MPs and Lords.
Backbencher: a term referring to the majority of members of Parliament in the House of Commons, who represent a constituency, but have no additional job title or responsibility within the government or opposition, and therefore tend to sit on the 'back benches' (the seats behind the front row on either side of the house).
Select Committee: a permanent parliamentary committee charged with scrutinizing the day-to-day workings of a government department, and other public authorities related to the responsibilities of that department. For example, the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee examines the work of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, as well as that of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Junior ministers: usually refers to people holding the ranks of Under Secretary of State or Minister of State in a government department. It is not a formal title, but a description of the person's relatively low ranking in the department, Junior ministers, broadly, are below Cabinet rank. The actual power that they hold and the level of responsibility they bear varies from person to person and from department to department.
Although junior ministers are not part of the cabinet, they are officially regarded as members of Her Majesty's Government for purposes of collective responsibility, together with Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPS). Becoming PPS is the first step on the ladder towards being in the government.
(a) Explain what is meant by the terms Government, backbencher, select committee and junior minister.
Government: The government runs the country. It has responsibility for developing and implementing policy and for drafting laws. It is also known as the Executive.
The political party that wins the most seats in a general election forms the new government, led by their party leader - who becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister appoints ministers, including the Cabinet, who often work in a government department, and run and develop public services and policies.
Government ministers are chosen from MPs and Lords in Parliament. Your MP may be a member of the party forming the current Government, but it doesn't necessarily mean they are working 'in government'. The rest of the MPs and Lords who are not in government carry out the work of Parliament. Ministers must regularly respond to oral and written questions from MPs and Lords.
Backbencher: a term referring to the majority of members of Parliament in the House of Commons, who represent a constituency, but have no additional job title or responsibility within the government or opposition, and therefore tend to sit on the 'back benches' (the seats behind the front row on either side of the house).
Select Committee: a permanent parliamentary committee charged with scrutinizing the day-to-day workings of a government department, and other public authorities related to the responsibilities of that department. For example, the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee examines the work of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, as well as that of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Junior ministers: usually refers to people holding the ranks of Under Secretary of State or Minister of State in a government department. It is not a formal title, but a description of the person's relatively low ranking in the department, Junior ministers, broadly, are below Cabinet rank. The actual power that they hold and the level of responsibility they bear varies from person to person and from department to department.
Although junior ministers are not part of the cabinet, they are officially regarded as members of Her Majesty's Government for purposes of collective responsibility, together with Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPS). Becoming PPS is the first step on the ladder towards being in the government.
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Issues related with central government - Her Majesty's Government (HMG) - part one
3. You hear that your local MP is to introduce a Private Member's Bill to abolish car tax and replace it with an increase in petrol duties.
You contact the MP concerned and she informs you that she intends to introduce her Bill under the Ten Minute Rule but holds out little hope for its success. She says that she has raised the matter of abolition of car tax at questions time but was not satisfied with the Secretary of State's reply.
You consult Hansard to look up the Minister's reply and see that she said the matter was being considered by a cabinet committee and a Green Paper will be issued in the near future. The Government hopes to follow this with a White Paper in nine months' time.
(a) Explain the terms in bold above.
Private Member's Bill(PMB): a Bill proposed by an individual backbencher, normally on an issue dear to his or her heart, and/or one that concerns his or her constituents. While they may cast the media's spotlight onto an issue, most PMBs are never allotted sufficient parliamentary time to pass into law, but there have been exceptions, including the 1967 Abortion Bill, introduced by future Liberal leader David Steel.
Ten Minute Rule: one of three ways in which private members' Bills (PMB) may be introduced into Parliament and the one that most often grabs headlines. A member of Parliament must have their idea for a Bill proposed and seconded by colleagues, and obtain a further eight members' signatures, and they will then be given ten minutes in which to introduce their proposals to the Commons. A MP who opposes the Bill will then have the same amount of time to make a speech outlining his or her objections.
Questions Time: session of parliamentary business during which backbenchers and'or peers on all sides have the opportunity of questioning individual departmental ministers on the conduct of their ministerial business. Major spending departments each have a question time session at least once a fortnight, while the most famous is “Prime Minister's Question”, held every Wednesday lunchtime.
Secretary of State: an umbrella term for the most senior government minister in a spending department (e.g. the Secretary of State for Health).
Hansard: the official record of all parliamentary business in both Houses. Protected by legal privilege and now available to read online, it is nonetheless not an entirely verbatim record of proceedings (except for the words used by the serving prime minister).
Cabinet Committee: subsets of the Cabinet, usually made up of groups of three or more senior ministers whose departmental responsibilities are related in some way. There are three types: standing (permanent); and hoc (temporary); ministerial (permanent, but made up nor of ministers, but of senior civil servants from related spending departments).
Green Paper: a consultation document on a tentative government policy proposal that may, in time, evolve into a White Paper, and from there into a proposed Bill. All government Bills (other than emergency legislation) will go through at least one Green Paper stage, although if the public and/or interest groups react strongly against a proposal, it is unlikely to go much further.
White Paper: a crystallized version of a Green Paper, containing more concrete proposals. If a proposed government Bill has got this far, it will normally proceed further into a formal draft Bill, and may well subsequently become an Act of Parliament.
You contact the MP concerned and she informs you that she intends to introduce her Bill under the Ten Minute Rule but holds out little hope for its success. She says that she has raised the matter of abolition of car tax at questions time but was not satisfied with the Secretary of State's reply.
You consult Hansard to look up the Minister's reply and see that she said the matter was being considered by a cabinet committee and a Green Paper will be issued in the near future. The Government hopes to follow this with a White Paper in nine months' time.
(a) Explain the terms in bold above.
Private Member's Bill(PMB): a Bill proposed by an individual backbencher, normally on an issue dear to his or her heart, and/or one that concerns his or her constituents. While they may cast the media's spotlight onto an issue, most PMBs are never allotted sufficient parliamentary time to pass into law, but there have been exceptions, including the 1967 Abortion Bill, introduced by future Liberal leader David Steel.
Ten Minute Rule: one of three ways in which private members' Bills (PMB) may be introduced into Parliament and the one that most often grabs headlines. A member of Parliament must have their idea for a Bill proposed and seconded by colleagues, and obtain a further eight members' signatures, and they will then be given ten minutes in which to introduce their proposals to the Commons. A MP who opposes the Bill will then have the same amount of time to make a speech outlining his or her objections.
Questions Time: session of parliamentary business during which backbenchers and'or peers on all sides have the opportunity of questioning individual departmental ministers on the conduct of their ministerial business. Major spending departments each have a question time session at least once a fortnight, while the most famous is “Prime Minister's Question”, held every Wednesday lunchtime.
Secretary of State: an umbrella term for the most senior government minister in a spending department (e.g. the Secretary of State for Health).
Hansard: the official record of all parliamentary business in both Houses. Protected by legal privilege and now available to read online, it is nonetheless not an entirely verbatim record of proceedings (except for the words used by the serving prime minister).
Cabinet Committee: subsets of the Cabinet, usually made up of groups of three or more senior ministers whose departmental responsibilities are related in some way. There are three types: standing (permanent); and hoc (temporary); ministerial (permanent, but made up nor of ministers, but of senior civil servants from related spending departments).
Green Paper: a consultation document on a tentative government policy proposal that may, in time, evolve into a White Paper, and from there into a proposed Bill. All government Bills (other than emergency legislation) will go through at least one Green Paper stage, although if the public and/or interest groups react strongly against a proposal, it is unlikely to go much further.
White Paper: a crystallized version of a Green Paper, containing more concrete proposals. If a proposed government Bill has got this far, it will normally proceed further into a formal draft Bill, and may well subsequently become an Act of Parliament.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)