COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY

1) The key concepts of Collective Responsibility are as follows:

Discussions in government should be kept secret
Decisions made in government are binding on all ministers
The government as a whole must resign if defeated on a vote
of confidence in parliament
The similarities between this convention and the doctrine of Cabinet
Collective Responsibility are that they both ensure agreement within the
party. In the case of CCR, this is specifically within the Cabinet, and with
Collective Responsibility, it is within the entire cabinet system. This avoids
discrepancy between party members and means there are no public
accusations that the government is doing something wrong; something
the media may use to make the party look weak.
2) This means the three main principles of Collective Responsibility and
Collective Government are:
Secrecy ensuring that details of discussion within the cabinet
system are kept secret, so sensitive information does not
enter the public domain. This is also so differences of opinion
are not revealed.
Binding decisions once a decision is reached in the cabinet
system, it becomes binding. This means that, all cabinet and
junior ministers, regardless of whether they are opposed to
the idea or were not directly involved with the decisionmaking, must stand behind this idea. Ministers may resign
over this issue, such as Sir Geoffrey Howe did in 1990, and
Robin Cook in 2003.
Confidence vote the entire government must resign if it is
defeated in a confidence motion. This last happened in James
Callaghans Labour government of 1979.
Home Office Minister John Denham resigned in March 2003 over the Iraq
War, following the resignation of Robin Cook and Lord Hunt of Kings Heath.
In the 2010-2015 Coalition government, there were a number of Collective
Responsibility resignations. One of these was Lib Dem Home Office
Minister, Norman Baker, who resigned in November 2014, and blamed
Theresa May for the way she was running her department. Under
Collective Responsibility, he would not have been able to say this. Most
recently, in March 2016, Iain Duncan Smith resigned, as he felt he could
not support Osbornes new Budget, which marked out a 1.3bn cut to
disability benefit.
3) There are five factors which have eroded Collective Responsibility.
These are:
Temporary suspension this convention can be suspended by the
government. This government has currently suspended CR, in the
lead up to the EU referendum. Despite the government backing a
Yes vote to remain in the EU, ministers (such as Boris Johnson,

Michael Gove, Chris Grayling and Minister of State for

Employment Priti Patel
Leaks these leaks of inside information are often orchestrated
by disgruntled ministers; whose aim is to stir up public
disagreement with policy. As they can, in theory, leak information
anonymously, it is not the same as publically disagreeing with
the policy, therefore not breaking the convention. Afraid Clare
Short (the secretary of state for international development who
opposed military action in Iraq) would leak sensitive government
information, Alistair Campbell told the Chilcot inquiry that she
been excluded from some discussions.
Dissent and non-resignation Ministers have been known to
publically disagree with policy and still keep their positions.
Wets in Thatchers Cabinet were often vocal about their
opposition to her economic policies, but they held their jobs until
she was secure. Eurosceptic Michael Portillo remained in Majors
Cabinet, despite his support and sympathy for backbench rebels.
Again, Clare Short remained two months in Blairs Cabinet,
despite her opposition to the war. Ultimately, she resigned.
Prime Ministerial Dominance members of the cabinet system
who do not feel like the cabinet are being properly consulted may
speak out whilst still under Collective Responsibility. Mo Mowlam
complained that Blair did not sufficiently use his cabinet, and
Caroline Flint resigned from Browns cabinet, accusing him of
relying solely on an inner circle, including few women.
Coalition The Coalition of 2010-2015 set up four key principles
where Collective Responsibility would be suspended, as the
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had very different views on
each. These were: Trident renewal, nuclear power stations, tax
allowances for married couples and funding for higher education.
Ministers were also allowed to campaign either way in the AV
referendum. Cross-party agreements can and have to be
reached, but it can be hard to keep a Coalition government from
sometimes neglecting the convention of collective responsibility.

INDIVIDUAL MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY

1) Individual ministerial responsibility is the convention wherein
ministers are accountable to parliament for their personal conduct,
the general conduct of their department sections and the policies
they pursue and the actions of officials within their department
section (and their personal conduct).
2) Though originally all-encompassing, the government have amended
the convention so that individual ministers are not responsible for
decisions made in their department that they had no knowledge of
and operational matters handled by officials in departments or
executive agencies. Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe stated that ministers
cannot be held responsible for decisions taken by civil servants
which they had no knowledge of, or which they disagreed with.
Ministers are not obliged to resign if failings are traceable to the

3)

4)

5)

6)

action (or inaction) of civil servants. But they are constitutionally

responsible for informing parliament of the actions of their
department. The difference between ministerial accountability and
individual responsibility is, therefore, context and the work of civil
servants.
The 1996 Scott Report stated that ministers have a duty to be as
open as possible, withholding information only when disclosure
would not be in the public interest, but ministers were liable only if
they misled parliament knowingly.
The Ministerial Code states that ministers must give accurate and
truthful information to Parliament; those who knowingly mislead
Parliament will be expected to offer their resignation. For example,
immigration minister Beverly Hughes resigned in 2004 after
admitting to unwittingly giving parliament a misleading impression
on checks on migrants from eastern Europe.
Another distinction made is between policy and operations.
Ministers are responsible for policy, but officials are responsible for
day-to-day operational matters. The Head of the UK Border Force,
Brodie Clark, was suspended in 2011 and then resigned when
border controls were relaxed without ministerial agreement. He
suspended some passport checks, which had not been agreed by
Theresa May. Therefore, this situation dealt with an operation that
officials and, not May herself, were in charge of. They resigned,
instead of the head of their department.
There are four main categories of grounds for resignation:
Mistakes made within departments the last example of this is
1954 when the agriculture minister had to step down after civil
servants mistakes came to light. This is a rare reason for
resignation. Even when departmental mistakes were discovered
in arms deals with Iraq in 1996, ministers managed to retain their
positions. Again, in 2012, after civil servants made mistakes and
forced the cancellation of competition for the West Coast Main
Line franchise, ministers survived.
Policy failure the last example of this is Foreign Secretary Lord
Carrington and two junior ministers resigning in 1982, over the
Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands (although Lord
Carrington later said that the situation had not been mishandled,
and he was stepping down to ensure national unity in the buildup to war).
Personal misconduct - ministers are supposed to follow the
seven principles of public life (Nolan Committee, 1995):
selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness,
honesty and leadership. Ministers who break this are expected to
resign. An example would be Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary
who resigned in 2014 over her expenses).
Political pressure this is a looser category, as it can not be
attributed to one reason for resignation. Instead, it is either
pressure from parliament, pressure from their party, or pressure
from the press about a ministers performance. After elections,

there is often political pressure for leaders to step down if they

have lost. Varying political pressures could be cited as the reason
Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg stepped down in May 2015.
Most resignations are for an accumulation of these reasons. e.g.
Andrew Mitchells plebgate 2012 resignation was highly publicised
and it could have been attributed to either personal misconduct or
political pressure (that it may have been damaging for his reputation to
stay in his ministerial position).