UK Government: Cabinet and Parliament
The Legislative Power of the Houses
The legislative power of the Lords is almost equivalent to that of the Commons, and laws must be approved by both Houses. However, the House of Lords has been excluded from all competition in projects of a financial nature. Nevertheless, it has an important work of revision and amendment on laws. As there are no time limits for discussion, they are usually of great interest, and as its members are non-elected, they are in a position to introduce some kind of legislation that may even damage the popularity of the Government.
A significant feature is that the House of Lords is the Second Court or Court of Appeals for the entire United Kingdom in civil cases and, with the exception of Scotland, in criminal cases. This function is performed by the Law Lords. Despite being affected by the reform of the Upper House, it remains an important element in the political model and the British government, mainly because its functions are inextricably linked with the Chamber of Commons.
The Government Cabinet
Indeed, the British Government (Ministry) is not the Cabinet. It is a complex network formed by the Privy Council, Cabinet, and Ministers, within which the key figure is the Prime Minister (Premier). The Government Office has its origin in the Privy Council, a body emanating from the medieval Curia Regis, a kind of Council of State with advisory functions to the monarch and some judicial powers. It comprises some 300 members, and the office is for life. It meets very rarely (marriage of the sovereign, accession to the throne, …). This body will give rise to the Cabinet, with the Privy Council losing virtually all its functions and maintaining a rather formal role, that of giving legal effect to certain governmental acts that take the form of Orders in Council and Royal Proclamations.
The Cabinet is the essential part of the executive system. One of its structural features is its homogeneity, being composed of members of the same party. The Cabinet comprises Ministers of key departments.
Cabinet Composition and Organization
While no Minister must necessarily form part of the Cabinet, within it are the most important of the departments. Its size has varied over time and although the average is around 20 people, it depends on the willingness of the Prime Minister. Its members should have a seat at one of the two chambers, and the Premier, specifically, in the House of Commons. It has also been consolidated in this House to have the seat of the Secretary of the Foreign Office (Foreign Affairs).
The Cabinet has a complex organization that has been shaped over time:
- Secretariat (Cabinet Office): This is the engine of governmental machinery. It is comprised of officials who are placed under the direction of a permanent secretary, who in turn is the secretary of the Prime Minister. Its primary function is to support the work of the Cabinet, i.e., to set the Cabinet agenda in advance by transmitting the most relevant documents to ministers, and also to coordinate the departments to inform decisions on these and monitor their adoption.
- Prime Minister’s Private Office: The Prime Minister, however, has a private office that includes about half a dozen members and a press office.
- Cabinet Committees: Within the Cabinet Office, a whole system of committees and subcommittees is articulated to address the workload and specialize in the study of certain issues, which remain before Cabinet meetings with political content issues and addressing the orientation of government action.
There are two types of committees:
- Permanent, whose existence is tied to the legislative period (Economy, Defense, Administration, …)
- Special, created to address and study specific problems.
A third category of committees composed of officials can also be created to address certain issues.
In all this structure are composed of the super-ministers (Overlords), figures created by Churchill in 1951 for coordination. Currently, these ministers are members of the House of Commons. There were three key areas: Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Defense, and Internal Affairs.
Finally, there is the inner cabinet, consisting of five or six key ministers, who along with the Premier are responsible for preparing the policy of the Cabinet itself.