Government Departments

The Government of the United Kingdom contains a number of ministries known mainly, though not exclusively as departments, each responsible for a particular sphere of the country’s life, e.g. Ministry of Defence. Government departments are staffed by politically neutral civil servants and are headed by ministers. They are the main instruments for implementing government policy when Parliament has passed the necessary legislation, and for advising ministers.

The most important departments are called:

· The Treasury (in most countries, this would be called the Ministry of Finance; it is responsible for the raising of all taxes and the control of all government expenditure plus the general management of the economy; the Head of the Treasury is called the Chancellor of the Exchequer).

· The Home Office (in most countries, this would be called the Ministry of the Interior; it is responsible for criminal matters, policing, and immigration; the Head of the Home Office is called the Home Secretary).

· The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (in most countries, this would be called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; it is responsible for all international relationships, especially the membership of the European Union; the Head of the Foreign Office is called the Foreign Secretary).

Many other UK Government Departments cover subjects such as education, health, transport, industry, and justice. However, in UK there are also departments for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

2.4. Government Ministers

All Government Departments are run by Ministers who are either Members of the House of Commons or Members of the House of Lords. There are three classes of Ministers:

· Secretary of State (this is usually the head of a Department).

· Minister of State (this is a middle-ranking minister).

· Under-Secretary of State (this is the most junior class of minister).

The Prime Minster and all the Secretaries of State together comprise an executive body of government called the Cabinet. The numbers often fluctuate between 21 and 24 (currently 23). The Cabinet meets usually once a week in the Cabinet Room at Prime Minister’s residence at 10, Downing Street. Cabinet meetings are confidential and all members are bound by any decision that it takes in a practice called collective responsibility. An extensive system of Cabinet Committees considers matters either before they go to Cabinet or (more usually) instead of them going to Cabinet.

Although all Ministers are appointed by the Prime Minster and report to him, ultimately all Ministers are accountable to Parliament:

· About once a month, they have to face questions in the House of Commons about the work of the Department.

· Each government department has a special committee of the House of Commons which watches the work of that Department.

· Any government initiative or important statement concerning a Department must be the subject of an appearance in the House of Commons by a minister from that Department.

2.5. The civil service

Each Secretary of State is able to appoint a couple of political advisers formally known as Special Advisers to serve him or her. They have no line management responsibilities in respect of the staff of the Department. Besides this tiny number of Special Advisers, Government Departments are run by civil servants who are recruited in a totally open manner and serve governments of any political parties. The independence and professionalism of the British civil service is a fundamental feature of the British political system. "Whitehall" is often used as a synonym for the central core of the Civil Service. This is because most Government Departments have headquarters in and around the former Royal Palace Whitehall.

2.6. Devolved government

The UK has a devolved system of government, but this is categorically not a system of federal government such as in the United State or Australia, partly because less than a fifth of the citizens of the UK are covered by the three bodies in question and partly because the three bodies themselves have different powers from one another.

The three devolved administrations are:

· The Scottish Parliament (came into operation in May 1999 and covers the 5 million citizens of Scotland. It has 129 members elected for four-year terms. It has legislative powers over those matters not reserved to the UK Parliament and it has limited tax-raising powers).

· The Welsh Assembly (came into operation in May 1999 and covers the 3 million citizens of Wales. It has 60 members elected for four-year terms. Since 2006, the Assembly has powers to legislate in some areas, though still subject to the veto of the Westminster Parliament. The Assembly has no tax-varying powers. The Welsh Assembly, therefore, has less power than either the Scottish Parliament or the Northern Ireland Assembly because unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland Wales does not have a separate legal system from England).

· The Northern Ireland Assembly (came into operation in May 2007 and covers the 1,5 million citizens of Northern Ireland. It has 108 members. It has legislative powers over those matters not reserved to the UK Parliament, but it has no tax-raising powers).

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 570