3.1 - The Structure, Role And Powers Of The Executive Flashcards
(20 cards)
What is the structure of the executive
- at the top is the PM, who chairs the cabinet, managing its agenda. Appoints all cabinet and junior ministers,morganisss structure of gov, can create/abolish/merge departments
- the cabinet, consisting of 20-23 senior ministers. Main collective decision-making body in government
- government departments, specific responsibility over a specific area, like education, finance etc
- executive agencies, controlled by gov departments, eg: DVLA is controlled by department for transport
What are the main roles of the executive
- decides how the country is run, home and abroad
How is the executive important for proposing legislation
- the executive introduces proposals for new laws or amendments to existing laws, announcing a new programme at start of each parliamentary session in the kings speech
How is the executive important in proposing the budget
- gov needs to raise revenue in order to fund public services
- budget is created by chancellor of the exechequer, in consultation with the PM
- it’s an annual statement of gov plans for changes to taxation and public spending
- need to add recent examples
How is the executive important in making policy decisions
- executive has to decide how to give effects to its aims for the future direction if the country
- EG: 2012, conservatives gov cut tax rate for earners above 150k from 50% to 45%
What are royal prerogative powers
- A set of powers which historically belonged to the crown, gradually given to PM,
- such as granting of honours or legal pardons, sign treaties, declare war, grant/withdraw passports, appoint ministers
What 2 powers of the prerogative powers have been abolished/reformed?
- the 2011 fixed term parliaments act removed the right of the PM to determine the date of the general election, however it is possible with support of MPs to bypass this, Theresa May 2017
- accepted that military action requires prior parliament approval
What is the initiation of legislation?
- executive controls most of parliamentary time available for legislation
- if a party has a good majority, it can rely on party whips and power of patronage to push through
- rebellions can occur though
What is secondary legislation
- law made without passing a new act of parliament, using powers created by an earlier act
- most common form is statutory instruments
- although parliament can debate and jpreject a statutory law, 2/3 of them become law without being put before MPs
What’s an example of Boris Johnson trying to use executive power
- Prorogation of parliament (2019): attempted to prorogue parliament for 5 weeks to avoid scrutiny over Brexit, was ruled unlawful by Supreme Court in ‘Miller II’
- shows executive overreach and judicial restraint on prerogative power
What’s an example of Theresa May and deploying military forces
- PMs can deploy armed forces without a commons vote
EG: air strikes in Syria in 2018, ordered by May without parliamentary approval
What’s an example of ministers using the ‘affirmative procedure’
- ministers used delegated legislation to impose lockdowns, close schools etc
- many passed with little/ni parliamentary debate using ‘affirmative procedure’
- shows how executive can legislate rapidly, often bypassing full scrutiny
What’s an example of Eishi Sunak making use of the whip system
- PM and party leaders use party discipline to control MPs vote
- sunak used 3-line whips to pas Rwanda asylum legislation
What are government departments
- gov is formed of departments, each responsible for an area of policy, currently 24 ministerial departments
- each is headed by a cabinet minister and supported by a team of junior ministers
- departments LSC oversee executive agencies which are semi-independent bodies run by civil servants, currently 422
What’s an EG of a gov department
- Current home office department headed by Yvette cooper who is sec of state, then 3 junior ministers
What’s the structure of cabinet
- consists of 20 senior ministers who head the departments. Currently 22, including Starmer
- cabinet can be sued for discussion and collective decision making on important areas of policy
- meetings are fairly formal and are headed by the PM, with agenda set in advance by the PM
What are the key roles and functions of the cabinet
- to register and ratify decisions made elsewhere
- discuss and make decisions on major issues
- receive reports on key developments
- to settle disputes between departments
How is early prisoners release an EG of secondary legislation?
12th July 2024, New labour gov approved a statutory instrument to deal with prisons crisis to allow early release of prisoners, so they could be released after serving 40% of their term, rather then the previous 50%, allowing 1000s of prisoners to be released in order to tackle overcrowding
What was the labour gov’s first budget in oct 2024
- raise in taxes by 40 billion, tax is highest it’s ever been at 38.2% of GDP
- could be argued it was quite a centrist budget, with public spending not changing that much
How is Cameron being appointed as a foreign secretary in 2023 an EG of power of patronage
- appointed by Sunak in 2023, he was made a peer. Sunak bypassed parliamentary norms to recruit a trusted ally
