Cabinet Office (UK)

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The Cabinet Office in the UK is a central authority of the British government, whose mission is to support the Prime Minister and the Cabinet with his ministers in the government work. The focus is on the coordination of government work, the efficient implementation of government policy and the coordination and good cooperation with all authorities.

The Cabinet Office is located at 70 Whitehall , not far from No. Downing Street. 10 and is home to various secretariats and committees, which vary in number and characteristics depending on the government and the political ideas of efficient government work. For example, during Tony Blair's second term in office , the Cabinet Office was divided into three main secretariats, each with five to seven sub-secretariats, housed 28 committees and employed around 2,000 people.

The Cabinet Office is solely responsible to the Prime Minister , his deputy and the ministers who chair one of the committees set up in the Cabinet Office. There are u. a. the Cabinet Manual , a guide to laws, conventions and rules related to government action.

Secretariats

Since the Cameron government - as of March 2012 - there are two senior secretariats, the

  • Government Policy Secretariat, which reports to the Cabinet Secretary, and the
  • Secretariat for the Efficiency Reform Group (ERG), which reports to the Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office.

The following secretariats are located below the Secretariat for Government Policy:

  • Cabinet Office of Information - (provision of information)
  • Prime Ministers Office - (Prime Minister's Office)
  • Deputy Prime Minister's Office - (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister)
  • Government in Parliament - (The Government in Parliament)
  • Joint Intelligence Organization - (Joint Intelligence Organization)
  • National Security - (National Security)
  • Economic & Domestic Affairs - (Economy and Domestic Affairs)
  • European and Global Issues - (European and Global Issues)
  • National School of Government - (National School)
  • Honors and Appointments - (Honors and Appointments)
  • Private Office Group - (Private Office Group)

The following secretariats are located below the Secretariat for Government Policy:

  • Government Digital Service - (Government digital service)
  • Cabinet Office Services - (office service)
  • Human Resources - (Personnel Department)
  • Cabinet Office Communications - (Communication)
  • Core (Efficiency Reform Group) ERG - (Core Reform Group for Efficiency)
  • Government Property Unit - (Government Property)

Cabinet Committees

The formation of the Cabinet Committees in number and assignment of tasks depends, as in the case of the Secretariats, above all on the setting of political priorities of the respective government and on their idea of ​​how decisions can be brought about by politically responsible persons. The committees, which may also be formed ad hoc for current events , serve primarily as meetings for deliberations.

The first ad hoc committee of its kind in a British government was the War Committee formed in 1855 during the siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War . Public criticism of the government's supposedly inefficient warfare led to the formation of the committee.

At the beginning of David Cameron's reign in May 2010, there were 18 committees:

  • Coalition Committee - (Coalition Committee)
  • Coalition Operation and Strategic Planning Group - (Coalition Operation and Strategic Planning)
  • National Security Council - (Council for National Security)
  • NSC (Threats, Hazards, Resilience and Contingencies) - (Threats, Disasters, Stability, Random Events)
  • Operational Meetings - (Operational Meetings)
  • NSC (Nuclear Deterrence and Security) (restricted attendance) - (Nuclear deterrence and security)
  • National Security Council (Emerging Powers) - National Security Council - Emerging Powers
  • European Affairs Committee - (European Affairs)
  • Social Justice Committee - (Social Justice)
  • Child Poverty sub-Committee - (child poverty)
  • Home Affairs Committee - (Internal Affairs)
  • Public Health sub-Committee - (Public Health)
  • Olympics sub-Committee - (Olympic Games)
  • Economic Affairs Committee - (Economic Affairs)
  • Reducing Regulation sub-Committee - (dismantling of regulations)
  • Banking Reform Committee - (banking reform)
  • Parliamentary Business and Legislation Committee - (Parliamentary and Legislative Affairs)
  • Public Expenditure Committee - (Public Expenditure)

history

The Cabinet Office was founded in 1916. The founding maxim of supporting the prime minister and the cabinet and strengthening government services still apply today.

The reason for creating such an authority at the time was the inefficiency of the existing UK authorities in providing short-term information on urgent decision-making. It was David Lloyd George who, after the beginning of the First World War and Great Britain's entry into the war, was appointed Minister of War in 1915 and first formed a five-person war cabinet and then created a Cabinet Secretariat, intended as a central organization and designed to keep the minutes Decisions and actions. It was the beginning of the Cabinet Office. Maurice Hankey , a civil servant with military experience , became the first secretary of this new secretariat in December 1916, after Lloyd George had ousted his Prime Minister and Party colleague Herbert Henry Asquith from office and took over the office himself . After the war ended, the Secretariat remained in place as it had proven efficient under Hankey's leadership and organization.

Over the years and depending on the government, the Cabinet Office has seen constant changes in terms of responsibility, organizational structure and the number of employees. In 1963, the Cabinet Office moved to the Old Treasury Building in Whitehall, where it is still located today. Since the 1980s, the Office has had an increasing influence and role in providing efficient government services. The authority itself grew and became expensive. It recorded the highest number of employees in 2004, when it had almost 2,200 employees. It was then restructured and the number of employees reduced to around 1,350 in March 2008 on a budget of a little under £ 220 million .

literature

  • John Kingdom: Government and Politics in Britain - An Introduction . 3. Edition. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-7456-2593-2 (English, first edition 1991).
  • Cabinet Office (Ed.): Cabinet Manual . London October 2011 (English, online [PDF] 1st edition).

Web links

  • Home Page. Cabinet Office, accessed November 5, 2012 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ J. Kingdom: Government and Politics in Britain . 2003, Firgure 14.7 A Prime Minister's Department ?, p. 448 .
  2. ^ J. Kingdom: Government and Politics in Britain . 2003, Cabinet committees, p. 427-430 .
  3. ^ J. Kingdom: Government and Politics in Britain . 2003, Cabinet Office, p. 430 .
  4. ^ Cabinet Manual. Cabinet Office, accessed November 5, 2012 .
  5. ↑ a b c Structure charts - Cabinet Office. Cabinet Office, March 31, 2012, accessed November 5, 2012 .
  6. ^ J. Kingdom: Government and Politics in Britain . 2003, Cabinet committees, p. 427 .
  7. ↑ John P. Machintosh: The British Cabinet . 3. Edition. Stevens & Sons Limited, London 1977, ISBN 0-416-31380-9 , pp. 148 (English, first edition 1962).
  8. ↑ a b c Cabinet Office (Ed.): Capability Review of the Cabinet Office . London December 2006, p. 9 (English, online [PDF; 266 kB ; accessed on March 12, 2019]).
  9. ↑ Kenneth O. Morgan: Number 10 Under Lloyd George 1916-22. Review in History, 2012, accessed November 8, 2012 .
  10. ^ A b Vernon Bogdanor: A Man and an Institution: Sir Maurice Hankey, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Custody of Cabinet Secrecy. Review in History, October 2009, accessed November 8, 2012 (review no.813).