1) The key concepts of Collective Responsibility are as follows:
Discussions in government should be kept secret Decisions made in government are binding on all ministers The government as a whole must resign if defeated on a vote of confidence in parliament The similarities between this convention and the doctrine of Cabinet Collective Responsibility are that they both ensure agreement within the party. In the case of CCR, this is specifically within the Cabinet, and with Collective Responsibility, it is within the entire cabinet system. This avoids discrepancy between party members and means there are no public accusations that the government is doing something wrong; something the media may use to make the party look weak. 2) This means the three main principles of Collective Responsibility and Collective Government are: Secrecy ensuring that details of discussion within the cabinet system are kept secret, so sensitive information does not enter the public domain. This is also so differences of opinion are not revealed. Binding decisions once a decision is reached in the cabinet system, it becomes binding. This means that, all cabinet and junior ministers, regardless of whether they are opposed to the idea or were not directly involved with the decisionmaking, must stand behind this idea. Ministers may resign over this issue, such as Sir Geoffrey Howe did in 1990, and Robin Cook in 2003. Confidence vote the entire government must resign if it is defeated in a confidence motion. This last happened in James Callaghans Labour government of 1979. Home Office Minister John Denham resigned in March 2003 over the Iraq War, following the resignation of Robin Cook and Lord Hunt of Kings Heath. In the 2010-2015 Coalition government, there were a number of Collective Responsibility resignations. One of these was Lib Dem Home Office Minister, Norman Baker, who resigned in November 2014, and blamed Theresa May for the way she was running her department. Under Collective Responsibility, he would not have been able to say this. Most recently, in March 2016, Iain Duncan Smith resigned, as he felt he could not support Osbornes new Budget, which marked out a 1.3bn cut to disability benefit. 3) There are five factors which have eroded Collective Responsibility. These are: Temporary suspension this convention can be suspended by the government. This government has currently suspended CR, in the lead up to the EU referendum. Despite the government backing a Yes vote to remain in the EU, ministers (such as Boris Johnson,
Michael Gove, Chris Grayling and Minister of State for
Employment Priti Patel Leaks these leaks of inside information are often orchestrated by disgruntled ministers; whose aim is to stir up public disagreement with policy. As they can, in theory, leak information anonymously, it is not the same as publically disagreeing with the policy, therefore not breaking the convention. Afraid Clare Short (the secretary of state for international development who opposed military action in Iraq) would leak sensitive government information, Alistair Campbell told the Chilcot inquiry that she been excluded from some discussions. Dissent and non-resignation Ministers have been known to publically disagree with policy and still keep their positions. Wets in Thatchers Cabinet were often vocal about their opposition to her economic policies, but they held their jobs until she was secure. Eurosceptic Michael Portillo remained in Majors Cabinet, despite his support and sympathy for backbench rebels. Again, Clare Short remained two months in Blairs Cabinet, despite her opposition to the war. Ultimately, she resigned. Prime Ministerial Dominance members of the cabinet system who do not feel like the cabinet are being properly consulted may speak out whilst still under Collective Responsibility. Mo Mowlam complained that Blair did not sufficiently use his cabinet, and Caroline Flint resigned from Browns cabinet, accusing him of relying solely on an inner circle, including few women. Coalition The Coalition of 2010-2015 set up four key principles where Collective Responsibility would be suspended, as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had very different views on each. These were: Trident renewal, nuclear power stations, tax allowances for married couples and funding for higher education. Ministers were also allowed to campaign either way in the AV referendum. Cross-party agreements can and have to be reached, but it can be hard to keep a Coalition government from sometimes neglecting the convention of collective responsibility.
INDIVIDUAL MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY
1) Individual ministerial responsibility is the convention wherein ministers are accountable to parliament for their personal conduct, the general conduct of their department sections and the policies they pursue and the actions of officials within their department section (and their personal conduct). 2) Though originally all-encompassing, the government have amended the convention so that individual ministers are not responsible for decisions made in their department that they had no knowledge of and operational matters handled by officials in departments or executive agencies. Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe stated that ministers cannot be held responsible for decisions taken by civil servants which they had no knowledge of, or which they disagreed with. Ministers are not obliged to resign if failings are traceable to the
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action (or inaction) of civil servants. But they are constitutionally
responsible for informing parliament of the actions of their department. The difference between ministerial accountability and individual responsibility is, therefore, context and the work of civil servants. The 1996 Scott Report stated that ministers have a duty to be as open as possible, withholding information only when disclosure would not be in the public interest, but ministers were liable only if they misled parliament knowingly. The Ministerial Code states that ministers must give accurate and truthful information to Parliament; those who knowingly mislead Parliament will be expected to offer their resignation. For example, immigration minister Beverly Hughes resigned in 2004 after admitting to unwittingly giving parliament a misleading impression on checks on migrants from eastern Europe. Another distinction made is between policy and operations. Ministers are responsible for policy, but officials are responsible for day-to-day operational matters. The Head of the UK Border Force, Brodie Clark, was suspended in 2011 and then resigned when border controls were relaxed without ministerial agreement. He suspended some passport checks, which had not been agreed by Theresa May. Therefore, this situation dealt with an operation that officials and, not May herself, were in charge of. They resigned, instead of the head of their department. There are four main categories of grounds for resignation: Mistakes made within departments the last example of this is 1954 when the agriculture minister had to step down after civil servants mistakes came to light. This is a rare reason for resignation. Even when departmental mistakes were discovered in arms deals with Iraq in 1996, ministers managed to retain their positions. Again, in 2012, after civil servants made mistakes and forced the cancellation of competition for the West Coast Main Line franchise, ministers survived. Policy failure the last example of this is Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington and two junior ministers resigning in 1982, over the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands (although Lord Carrington later said that the situation had not been mishandled, and he was stepping down to ensure national unity in the buildup to war). Personal misconduct - ministers are supposed to follow the seven principles of public life (Nolan Committee, 1995): selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. Ministers who break this are expected to resign. An example would be Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary who resigned in 2014 over her expenses). Political pressure this is a looser category, as it can not be attributed to one reason for resignation. Instead, it is either pressure from parliament, pressure from their party, or pressure from the press about a ministers performance. After elections,
there is often political pressure for leaders to step down if they
have lost. Varying political pressures could be cited as the reason Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg stepped down in May 2015. Most resignations are for an accumulation of these reasons. e.g. Andrew Mitchells plebgate 2012 resignation was highly publicised and it could have been attributed to either personal misconduct or political pressure (that it may have been damaging for his reputation to stay in his ministerial position).