MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY
This essay entails the discussion about the significance of political accountability that can be
done by the ministerial responsibility and role of executive in the United Kingdom. It will
discuss the purpose of Ministerial code and role of Prime Minister in United Kingdom. We
will discuss the constitutional conventions of collective ministerial responsibility by
describing the examples of different ministerial codes. It will explain the significant elements
of collective ministerial responsibility such as confidence, unanimity and confidentiality.
Lastly, it will discuss the individual ministerial responsibility along with Carltona principle
and recent developments.
The term "executive" normally means the division of government answerable for applying
and imposing laws and policies. It is one of the three divisions of government in the UK,
along with the legislative (Parliament) and judicial (courts) divisions. Executive is defined as
the central government that can be headed by the Sovereign. The executive is responsible for
controlling government departments and organizations, formulates policies, making decisions
on policy implementation, and supervises the everyday procedures of government.
The part of Prime Minister is not clearly defined in the constitution of the UK not even in
the Ministerial code. The Foreword of prime minister that is described by the Rishi Sunak is
that “he will ensure economic stability by maintaining the currency of their state, he will
strengthen the NHS (National Health Service) by privatizing it and give more control over it.
He will compensate the challenges by embracing the opportunity of Brexit, will ensure the
integrity by upholding the principle of public life and by establishing the economy where
innovative businesses can invest” (Ministerial Code).
Political Accountability in democratic government concerned with the responsibility of
government officials such as ministers and civil servants and requires them to work and serve
the people in best way. It ensures transparency in decision-making, legitimacy, trust of state,
allows the public to make ministers accountable for their actions and to seek remedies when
mistakes occur (A Discussion paper by Benoit Guerin; Julian McCrae; Marcus
Shepheard).
There are many consequences of weak accountability within government systems. When
there is no proper accountability mechanisms then the risk of various failures increases for
, example, financial mismanagement, service collapse, or chronic underperformance, lack of
clarity, a lack of outcomes for poor performance, insufficient transparency and a recurring
pattern of failure. These failures results in various issues such as ministers and civil servants
starts blaming each other with the wrong things that restricts the chance of improving
mistakes in future which affects the flagship projects such as Windrush immigration cases.
Also, when failures are directly attributable with ministers, they allowed to ignore the
outcomes and remains in offices which increases the financial and operational problems.
Moreover, poor contract management increases in those areas where there is no adequate
knowledge to detect performance for example Common Agricultural Policy Delievery
Programme face challenges because of poor cooperation. (A Discussion paper by Benoit
Guerin; Julian McCrae; Marcus Shepheard).
The convention of ministerial responsibility plays an important part in the responsibility of
government to decrease the risk of failures because all members of government are somehow
part of the parliament either from House of Commons or House of Lords. These members
ensures that executive is also accountable to the parliament and plays crucial role in
constitution. William Bagehot has identified the Westminister Model and describes the
overlap among executive and legislature as it is the ‘efficient secret’ of the British
constitution. While, Lord Hailsham describes this system as ‘elective dictatorship’ where
democratic government with parliamentory majority exercise significant powers without any
judicial constraint but the reality lies in between. This model ensures the balance of powers
among executive and parliament. It prevents the executive to become more dominant over
parliament by making parliament responsible for scrutinizing and holding executive
accountable.
This model is criticized in a way that why it is important to write this convention while the
constitution of the UK is uncodified or unwritten. This is because it ensures clarity and
transparency regarding the responsibilities of ministers, protect the democrarcy and ensures
that government actions are subject to scrutiny. Codification of this convention gives a legal
basis and ministerial responsibility becomes legally binding obligation rather than merely a
political tradition. Ministers after knowing that they can be held accountable for their actions
do not exercise the abuse of powers which ensures stability of government. Hence, these
This essay entails the discussion about the significance of political accountability that can be
done by the ministerial responsibility and role of executive in the United Kingdom. It will
discuss the purpose of Ministerial code and role of Prime Minister in United Kingdom. We
will discuss the constitutional conventions of collective ministerial responsibility by
describing the examples of different ministerial codes. It will explain the significant elements
of collective ministerial responsibility such as confidence, unanimity and confidentiality.
Lastly, it will discuss the individual ministerial responsibility along with Carltona principle
and recent developments.
The term "executive" normally means the division of government answerable for applying
and imposing laws and policies. It is one of the three divisions of government in the UK,
along with the legislative (Parliament) and judicial (courts) divisions. Executive is defined as
the central government that can be headed by the Sovereign. The executive is responsible for
controlling government departments and organizations, formulates policies, making decisions
on policy implementation, and supervises the everyday procedures of government.
The part of Prime Minister is not clearly defined in the constitution of the UK not even in
the Ministerial code. The Foreword of prime minister that is described by the Rishi Sunak is
that “he will ensure economic stability by maintaining the currency of their state, he will
strengthen the NHS (National Health Service) by privatizing it and give more control over it.
He will compensate the challenges by embracing the opportunity of Brexit, will ensure the
integrity by upholding the principle of public life and by establishing the economy where
innovative businesses can invest” (Ministerial Code).
Political Accountability in democratic government concerned with the responsibility of
government officials such as ministers and civil servants and requires them to work and serve
the people in best way. It ensures transparency in decision-making, legitimacy, trust of state,
allows the public to make ministers accountable for their actions and to seek remedies when
mistakes occur (A Discussion paper by Benoit Guerin; Julian McCrae; Marcus
Shepheard).
There are many consequences of weak accountability within government systems. When
there is no proper accountability mechanisms then the risk of various failures increases for
, example, financial mismanagement, service collapse, or chronic underperformance, lack of
clarity, a lack of outcomes for poor performance, insufficient transparency and a recurring
pattern of failure. These failures results in various issues such as ministers and civil servants
starts blaming each other with the wrong things that restricts the chance of improving
mistakes in future which affects the flagship projects such as Windrush immigration cases.
Also, when failures are directly attributable with ministers, they allowed to ignore the
outcomes and remains in offices which increases the financial and operational problems.
Moreover, poor contract management increases in those areas where there is no adequate
knowledge to detect performance for example Common Agricultural Policy Delievery
Programme face challenges because of poor cooperation. (A Discussion paper by Benoit
Guerin; Julian McCrae; Marcus Shepheard).
The convention of ministerial responsibility plays an important part in the responsibility of
government to decrease the risk of failures because all members of government are somehow
part of the parliament either from House of Commons or House of Lords. These members
ensures that executive is also accountable to the parliament and plays crucial role in
constitution. William Bagehot has identified the Westminister Model and describes the
overlap among executive and legislature as it is the ‘efficient secret’ of the British
constitution. While, Lord Hailsham describes this system as ‘elective dictatorship’ where
democratic government with parliamentory majority exercise significant powers without any
judicial constraint but the reality lies in between. This model ensures the balance of powers
among executive and parliament. It prevents the executive to become more dominant over
parliament by making parliament responsible for scrutinizing and holding executive
accountable.
This model is criticized in a way that why it is important to write this convention while the
constitution of the UK is uncodified or unwritten. This is because it ensures clarity and
transparency regarding the responsibilities of ministers, protect the democrarcy and ensures
that government actions are subject to scrutiny. Codification of this convention gives a legal
basis and ministerial responsibility becomes legally binding obligation rather than merely a
political tradition. Ministers after knowing that they can be held accountable for their actions
do not exercise the abuse of powers which ensures stability of government. Hence, these
