Working with Ministers in DFID

The Constitutional Framework

Monarchy

In the United Kingdom the Queen is the Head of State, but most of the powers once exercised by the monarch have now been devolved to ministers. Constitutional experts, however, generally agree that in certain circumstances, even in the 21st century, the Queen retains the power to exercise personal discretion over issues such as appointing the Prime Minister and dissolving Parliament.

Cabinet Government

The Cabinet is officially the ultimate arbiter of all government policy. The main reason why the British system of government is said to be one of Cabinet Government, rather than Prime Ministerial Government, is because Acts of Parliament give powers to ministers (usually Secretaries of State), rather than to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has very little formal power in law; it is the ministers who sit around the cabinet table who exercise these powers, in theory at least.

Parliamentary Democracy

The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy. There are two key features to this. The first is that members of the government are also members of one of the two Houses of Parliament (although there are very occasional exceptions to this general rule). The second, and perhaps more important, is that government is directly accountable to Parliament. It is accountable to Parliament not only on a day-to-day basis – for example, through the system of parliamentary questions, select committees and debates on government policy – but ultimately because it owes its very life to Parliament. The governing party is only in power because it commands a majority on the floor of the House of Commons; and at any time the House of Commons can dismiss the Government through a vote of no confidence. This is a rare occurrence, but the last Labour Government was dismissed in this way in 1979.

Parliamentary Sovereignty

The United Kingdom Parliament is a sovereign parliament in the way that most other parliaments around the world are not. This stems from there being no single written constitution that sets out people’s basic rights. In other countries, for example the United States, should the legislature pass a law that infringes any of the basic rights that people enjoy under the Constitution, it is possible for the courts to overturn it. Although since the passing of the Human Rights Act it is more difficult to pass legislation that infringes on people’s basic rights, in the UK it is still, in the final analysis, Parliament, not the judges, that decides what the law is. Judges interpret the law – they do not make the law.

Royal Prerogative

An important feature of the British Constitution is that ministers can exercise what are called prerogative powers, wholly outside the control of Parliament. The Royal Prerogative operates in a number of areas including:

• certain areas of foreign and defence policy – including making of treaties and recognising foreign states, the deployment of armed forces and the declaration of war.
• the dissolution of Parliament and the appointment of a Government and ministers
• the giving of appointments and honours

These ancient powers of the state are beyond the control of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. So, for example, if the British Government wished to put British troops into action, this would not formally require the consent of Parliament even if, in practice, a debate might actually take place in Parliament before such actions were taken. However with the debate and the Government defeated by 285 to 272 in the House of Commons on 30 August 2013 the Prime Minister accepted the will of Parliament and did not put British troops into action in Syria.

Unitary

The United Kingdom has a unitary system of government: in other words, a system where power very much resides at the centre. In recent years however, real but varying amounts of power have been devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. However no powers have yet been devolved to any parts of England, with the exception of London.

Permanent and Impartial Civil Service

The United Kingdom has a Civil Service that acts impartially and does not change when the Government changes. This is in contrast to most other countries around the world where civil services are politically appointed, at least at their most senior levels. This feature of the UK system of government makes the relationship between ministers and civil servants somewhat different to how it is elsewhere.

Courts

The Supreme Court has replaced the House of Lords as the highest court in the United Kingdom in 2009. The reason for the introduction of the Supreme Court was the fact that it was felt that there needed to be a more clear distinction between the legislature and the courts.

‘Separation of powers’

The notion of a ‘separation of powers’ exists within the UK whereby it is felt that in order to have a true democratic system there needs to be a separation between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Therefore, the idea of having a House of Lords as an essential part of the legislature and the highest court in the land appeared to defy the separation of powers principle.

It is important to note that there was no suggestion that that there was any link between the House of Lords the legislature and the House of Lords the judiciary. The separation of powers was in evidence previously, with the House of Lords legislature completely different to the House of Lords judiciary. Nevertheless, it was felt that they could appear to breach the principle and therefore it was best to replace the House of Lords Judiciary with the Supreme Court.

Law of precedent

As the highest court in the land the rulings of the Supreme Court are, of course, hugely important for all courts across the UK. A law of precedent operates within the UK meaning that should the Supreme Court make a ruling in law then all courts in the UK should have to rule similarly should they be faced with a situation where the facts are similar to those faced in the Supreme Court decision. As a result, every Supreme Court decision has huge legal ramifications across the Country.

The Government (Executive)

Following a general election or the resignation of a Prime Minister,The Queen invites the person who appears most likely to command the confidence of the House of Commons to be Prime Minister and to form a Government.

The Prime Minister

The prerogative of recommending the appointment of ministers and determining the membership of Cabinet and Cabinet committees rests with the Prime Minister. However, in some circumstances the Prime Minister may agree to consult others before exercising those prerogatives.e.g. consulting Nick Clegg on the appointment of five Cabinet Ministers from the Liberal Democrats following the formation of the Coalition Government in 2010.

The Ministerial Code states: ‘the Prime Minister is responsible for the overall organisation of the Executive and the allocation of functions between Ministers in charge of departments.

The Prime Minister has held the office of Minister for the Civil Service since that office was created in 1968, in which capacity he or she has overall responsibility for the management of most of the Civil Service.

The Prime Minister is the minister responsible for National Security and matters affecting the Secret Intelligence Service, Security Service and GCHQ collectively, in addition to which the Home and Foreign Secretaries of State and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland have powers granted in legislation to authorise specific operations.

Ministers

In general, the ministers in the government can be divided into the following categories: senior ministers (Secretaries of State and other key positions such as the Chancellor of the Exchequer); who run Government Departments, junior ministers (Ministers of State, Parliamentary under Secretaries of State and Parliamentary Secretaries) who assist the Secretary of State; the Law Officers’ (Attorney General, Solicitor General etc.); and whips.

There is a convention that an individual will be a minister only if they are a Member of the House of Commons or the House of Lords, with most being Members of the House of Commons. However, there are examples (such as Peter Mandelson, as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2008) of individuals being appointed as a minister in anticipation of their becoming a Member of one of the Housesand of continuing to hold office for a short period after ceasing to be Members of the House of Commons (Patrick Gordon-Walker, as Foreign Secretary in 1964).Ministers hold office as long as they have the confidence of the Prime Minister. They are supported by impartial civil servants.

Ministers’ powers derive from: Parliament, which grants powers through legislation; ministers’ common law powers to act; and prerogative powers of the Crown that are exercised by, or on the advice of,

Ministers. Each form of power is subject to limits and constraints, and its use may be challenged in the courts. Ministers can also only spend public money for the purposes authorised by Parliament. Powers may be exercised by civil servants on behalf of ministers.

Supplement 1 to this Section provides details of the current ministerial team in DFID.

Supplement 1

DFID Ministerial Team

Rt Hon Justine Greening, MP – Secretary of State

Biography

Justine Greening was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on 4 September 2012. She is the ConservativeMPfor Putney, Roehampton and Southfields.

Education

Justine attended her local comprehensive school in Rotherham, South Yorkshire before going on to study economics at Southampton University. Justine has an MBA from the London Business School.

Career

Justine was a finance manager at Centrica plc before being elected as a Member of Parliament in May 2005. Following her election she was appointed as a Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party, with responsibility for youth.

As well as being a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, in 2007 she became a Shadow Treasury Minister and in January 2009 became the Shadow Minister for London.

Justine was Economic Secretary to the Treasury from May 2010 to October 2011 and Secretary of State for Transport from October 2011 to September 2012.

Rt Hon Desmond Swayne, MP – Minister of State

Biography

Alan Duncan was appointed Minister of State for International Development in July 2014. He has been the Conservative MP for New Forrest West since 1997

He was a school master from 1981 to 1987 and a manager with the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1987 to 1997 when he was elected to Parliament for the New Forest West constituency. He continues to serve as a Territorial Army officer which he joined at University in 1978.

Education

Desmond Swayne was born in 1956 and was educated at Bedford School and St Andrews University.

Political career

Alan held a number of roles in government and opposition before being appointed Minister of State for International Development.

Mr Swayne was appointed to the Government Whips Office as Senior Lords Commissioner in September 2012.

He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Prime Minister fromMay 2010 to September 2012. Prior to this, he served as PPS to the Leader of the Opposition, Michael Howard from September 2004 and then to David Cameron.

He held shadow ministerial portfolios for Northern Ireland, Health and Defence and he has also been an Opposition whip. In the 1997-2001 Parliament, he was on the Social Security select committee.

Baroness Northover– Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State

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Baroness Northoverleads on:

• West and Southern Africa
• East and Central Africa and Somalia
• Policy (excluding anti-corruption)
• Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB a malaria
• eliminating violence against women & girls

Biography

Baroness Northover was appointed to the role of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in 2014

Education

Baroness Northover studied at Oxford University, later winning scholarships to the USA where she gained her master’s andPhD.

Political career

Baroness Northover entered the House of Lords in 2000 and was appointed Health Spokesperson. In 2002 she became Liberal Democrat Front Bench Spokesperson on International Development. As a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Union, she served on the Sub Committees on Foreign Affairs, Defence and International Development, and Economic Affairs, Finance and International Trade. She was Chair of Women Liberal Democrats, the Health and Welfare Association and a trustee of the Liberal Democrats.

Career outside politics

Baroness Northover was a lecturer at University College, London, and the Wellcome Institute. She is a former trustee of UNICEF and the Tropical Health and Education Trust, a council member of the Overseas Development Institute and Vice Chair of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

Ministers are ‘shadowed’ by HM Opposition and other parties

Government departments

Ministerial departments are often those that most people are generally familiar with, these are government departments that are generally headed by a Secretary of State or other Cabinet Minister (a politician) and are responsible for developing policy and putting it into practice.

Some departments, like theMinistry of Defence cover the whole UK. Others don’t – theDepartment for Work and Pensions doesn't cover Northern Ireland. This is because some aspects of government are devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

There are currently 24 ministerial departments but as these are generally non-statutory bodies the Prime Minister can set up, abolish and change the role and functions of such departments largely at will – though the current Prime Minister has resisted this temptation.

Non-ministerial departments are headed by senior civil servants and not ministers. They usually have a regulatory or inspection functions like the Charity Commission, Ofsted and Ofgem. There are currently 21 non-ministerial departments and as these are usually statutory bodies an Act of Parliament is required to set up, abolish or change the role and functions of such departments. Ministers are still responsible to Parliament for the work of these departments.

Arm’s length bodies

There are currently 331 Agencies and arm’s length bodies

Executive Agencies touch the lives of the public through the services they deliver for example – Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), and Highways Agency provide services to motorists. They are a part of a Ministerial Department (in the case of the Agencies above, a part of Department for Transport) but have a great deal of autonomy in organizing the delivery of those services to meet objectives and targets set by the Department and within the budget provided by the Department but those decisions are at arm’s length from ministers. Most of us will at some stage have dealings with another executive agency HM Passport Office – which issues and renews passports to British Citizens ‘at arm’s length’ from ministers whilst meeting targets and objectives set by the Home Office.

Of course in some circumstances it is difficult for ministers to remain at arm’s length when decisions have significant political implications and there can be great tension between the Chief Executive (a senior civil servant) who heads up the agency and the Secretary of State. This has lead to some executive agencies such as UKBA being brought back into the main Ministerial Department and in other cases public disagreements between the agency and ministers.

Non-Departmental Public Bodies are not part of a government department and are not staffed by civil servants*. However, they carry out a number of functions required by government and receive their funding from Departments, for example the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority receives a grant from the Ministry of Justice and is responsible to it for the administration of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme in England, Scotland and Wales.

The Environment Agency (not as the name would suggest an Executive Agency) receives grant from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and is responsible for environmental protection, including flood defence, in England and Wales. These two distinctly different NDPBs are both known as Executive NDPBs as they perform executive functions, other NDPBS may perform only advisory functions e.g the Committee on Standards in Public Life, or the Administration of Radioactive Substances Advisory Committee. Some other NDPBs carry out Tribunal or appeals hearings e.g. the Police (Discipline) Appeals Tribunal. Ministers are for a greater or lesser degree involved in appointments of senior members of staff and other appointments to them and reporting to Parliament on their performance and actions.

*except for the Health and Safety Executive and the Advisory, Conciliation & Arbitration Service who are staffed by the civil service – these NDPB’s are known as ‘Crown NDPBs’.

Public Corporations; the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the public corporation that is most familiar to us. Originally set up by Royal Charter in 1926 and most recently its charter was renewed for a further period of ten years in 2006, when the BBC Trust (replacing the BBC Governors) was set up. The BBC is independent of Government but has public functions including, sustaining citizenship and civil society, promoting education and learning, stimulating creativity and cultural excellence, bring the UK to the world and the world to the UK. It receives grant from government up to the value equal to net receipts for the net licence fee. In effect it is financed by receipts for its service. We have seen recently that ministers, along with senior managers and trust members, are still called to Parliament to account for its work.

Other public corporation s operates on a similar basis for example the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was set up by statute in 1972 as an independent specialist aviation regulator and provider of air traffic services. It is required to finance itself entirely through charges on those it regulates. Ministers in Department for Transport will still set the policy framework in which the CAA operates