Summary A-level Edexcel UK Government 3 - The Prime Minister and the Executive
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Course
Paper 2 UK Government (9PL0)
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
Comprehensive A* politics notes for the UK Prime Minister and the Executive. Includes in depth analysis, essay points, and up to date examples for all the areas of this topic: the Prime Minister, cabinet, individual and collective ministerial responsibility. Also includes case studies on Tony Blair...
What is the Executive? The branch of government concerned with formulating
and executing policy, consisting of the Prime Minister and their cabinet.
What is the structure of the executive?
The Prime Minister is head of the executive and appointed by the Monarch. They
are Primus Inter Pares: first amongst equals.
The cabinet; the key decision making body of the UK. It consists of The Prime
Minister and around 22-23 senior ministers who they appoint, most of whom lead
a particular government department.
Junior ministers, also appointed by the Prime Minister, who assist the senior
ministers in running their government department.
The education secretary has three junior ministers, each one taking
responsibility for a different aspect of education policy: primary school,
secondary school, university and higher education.
The Civil Service; politically neutral, permanent officials who carry out the day-
to-day running of government departments. They enact the minister’s policy
decisions and provide them with information and neutral advice. In recent years
there has been a growth of temporary special advisors, SpAds, who are
employed as civil servants.
Dominic Cummings was employed as Chief of Staff for Boris Johnson
but seemed to have a much bigger role in shaping policy than just
offering neutral advice.
Since 2019 the executive has been comprised of 92 MPs and 24 peers.
What are the main roles of the executive?
1. Proposing legislation
2. Proposing a budget
3. Making policy decisions within law and budget: decisions on how to enact
and enforce legislation, and make changes to government spending.
Issues may arise in which finances need to be amended e.g Covid.
What are the main powers of the executive?
The Prime Minister and cabinet exercise the Royal Prerogative, a set of delegated
powers and privileges belonging in law to the Monarch.
They have the power to initiate legislation as they control the legislative
timetable in the House of Commons. Most bills are proposed by the government
and almost all are approved and become law. Private members' bills that do not
enjoy government support are unlikely to succeed.
They have the power of secondary legislation, given to the executive by
Parliament, to amend and adapt legislation in order to work practically in the real
world. Secondary legislation is not debated and is unlikely to be rejected.
Prime Minister’s Power and Authority
, Through the prerogative powers, the Prime Minister inherits the traditional
authority of the monarch. They become a temporary head of state, who can
negotiate and ratify treaties, deploy armed forces as commander-in-chief, grant
patronage and legal pardons, recall parliament or call an early general election,
and represent the UK during international diplomacy.
Some Prerogative Powers have been limited in recent years. It has now
become a convention that parliament votes on the deployment of the
armed forces overseas, and the Fixed Term Parliaments Act (2011)
restricted the PM’s power to call an early election. This act has since
been repealed.
The Prime Minister is the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons
following a general election. Therefore, the Prime Minister’s authority comes
through the party in Parliament where they control and set the legislative
agenda.
The Prime Minister enjoys the powers of patronage; to make important
appointments to public offices, including peers and cabinet ministers. Those who
aspire to hold these positions will tend to be loyal to the Prime Minister, as do
those who have been selected because they can still be dismissed. This gives the
PM considerable power and influence.
The Prime Minister is not directly elected by the people. However, during a
general election, the leader of a party is a major factor for voters. Therefore the
PM does enjoy a degree of authority directly from the people.
He provides national leadership in times of crisis e.g Covid.
Ministerial Responsibility can be divided into two sections.
Individual ministerial responsibility:
Individual ministerial responsibility is the convention that cabinet ministers are
culpable for their government departments and personal conduct.
The first instance of IMR was back in 1949, when the secretary of state for
agriculture resigned.
Ministers who accepted responsibility for their and their departments political
mistakes and resigned:
- In 2018 Amber Rudd stated before a select committee, and then later in
front of the Commons, that she did not know of any deportation targets for
illegal immigrants. However, a letter soon emerged - from her office to the
Prime Minister - detailing such targets and Amber Rudd resigned from her
post as Home Secretary over “misleading parliament.” Cabinet ministers
should be aware of everything in their department.
- In 2017, reports emerged that then International Development Secretary,
Priti Patel, had arranged and attended meetings with Israeli Officials that
were not authorised by the FCO. She accepted IMR and resigned,
apologizing that her “actions fell below the standards of transparency and
openness.”
However,
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