structure of the executive

• PM - Rishi Sunak

  • Head of the executive
  • No personal mandate - his party has one
  • Hire and fire power
• Cabinet

  • 25 senior ministers
  • Head government departments e.g. Treasury
  • Contain the Great Offices of State - Chancellor, Home Sec, Foreign Sec, PM
• Chancellor

  Jeremy Hunt
• Home Secretary 


  James Cleverly
• Foreign Secretary

  David Cameron (Lord)
• Government departments

  • Oversee parts of the executive e.g. Education, Agriculture
  • Heads are usually in the Cbainet but can be outside the Cabinet
• Executive agencies

  Semi independent, carry out functions of government e.g. DVLA overseen by Department of Transport
• Chief whips

  • 15 of them
  • Oversee the MPs and make sure they have alliegnce to the party line
• Junior minsters

  • 100 of them
  • Many sit in the HoL where Lords can question them
• Senior civil servants

  • Appointed, permanent and neutral - work for any party
  • Most senior is the Cabinet Secretary who heads the Cabinet - Simon Case
• Political Advisors (SPADs)

  • Unelected and partisan
  • Appointed by the PM
  • Dominic Cummings was a former SPAD
• Outside the core executive - PGs give government information and think tanks help shape legislation