collective responsibility

• Individual ministerial responsibility


  Ministers are accountable to parliament for the policies of their department, the conduct of their department, and their own personal conduct
• If there are failings in a minister's department, the blame often goes to the civil servants rather than the minister
• Ministers are non-experts and are surrounded by expert civil servants who are supposed to know what is actually going on
• If a minister knowingly misleads parliament, they should resign
• Ministerial code of conduct

  Sets out principles for how a minister should behave, and any minister breaking the code should resign
• Resignations can also come due to political pressure, disagreements with the Prime Minister, or personal misconduct
• Collective ministerial responsibility


  Ministers must support all government decisions in public, even if they argued against them in private
• Cabinet discussions are supposed to be private, but this is not always the case anymore
• When there are issues of absolute political disagreement, a minister may say they cannot publicly defend a policy and will resign, like Robin Cook in 2003 over the Iraq war
• There have been many resignations under May and Johnson over Brexit
• Reasons for ministerial resignations

  A combination of different things like a series of disagreements over time, personality clashes, power politics, etc.
• Cabinet discussions should be private, but there have been a remarkable number of leaks during Johnson's time in office, notably over timings and extent of lockdown
• The cabinet should outwardly appear completely united and agree, and if they don't, the cabinet member should resign
• If enough of the cabinet dislike an argument from the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister can't get something through cabinet, the Prime Minister should go
• The principle of cabinet collective responsibility is important in UK politics
• There have been exceptions to collective responsibility, such as during referendums over Europe in 1975 and 2016, where the Prime Minister suspended collective responsibility
• In the 2010-2015 coalition government, the Lib Dems were not bound by collective responsibility on certain issues like nuclear power, tax allowances, higher education funding, and the Trident program
• Collective responsibility can also be removed for 'free votes' on matters of conscience, like the 2013 vote on same-sex marriage
• Collective responsibility can lead to the perception that disunity is the greatest weakness, which can stifle political debate, particularly when the governing party has a strong majority
• Collective responsibility can also lead to Prime Ministerial dominance, with the Prime Minister wanting ministers who will just accept what they want
• Collective responsibility can result in internal dissent and leaks rather than open discourse and debate on policies
• The counter-argument is that collective responsibility provides clarity and accountability for voters