The Prime Minister and the Cabinet
The Prime Minister is, by tradition, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. The Prime Minister's unique position of authority derives from majority support in the House of Commons and from the power to appoint and dismiss ministers. By modern convention, the Prime Minister always sits in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister presides over the Cabinet, is responsible for the distribution of duties among ministers and informs the Queen at regular meetings of the current workings of the Government. The Prime Minister's other responsibilities include recommending a number of appointments to the Queen. These include Church appointments (archbishops, bishops, deans), senior judges, Privy Counsellors and other officials. The Prime Minister also makes recommendations for the award of many civil honours and distinctions. The Prime Minister's Office is at 10 Downing Street, the official residence in London. It is there that the Cabinet often meets in private and its proceedings are confidential. Its members are bound by their oath as Privy Counsellors not to disclose any information. Normally the Cabinet meets each week during parliamentary sittings, and rather less often when Parliament is not sitting. The Cabinet Office is headed by the Secretary of the Cabinet, a civil servant who is also Head of the Home Civil Service, under the direction of the Prime Minister. It comprises the Cabinet Secretariat and the Office of Public Service and Science (OPSS). The Cabinet Secretariat serves ministers collectively in the conduct of Cabinet business. A great deal of work is carried on through the committee system. A standing Cabinet committee or a committee composed of the ministers directly concerned considers a certain issue in detail and then reports upon it to the Cabinet with recommendations for action. The functions of the Cabinet are to initiate and decide on policy, the supreme control of government and the co-ordination of government departments. The exercise of these functions is vitally affected by the fact that the Cabinet is a group of party representatives, depending upon majority support in the House of Commons. The Cabinet acts unanimously even when Cabinet ministers do not all agree on a subject. This is known as the doctrine of collective responsibility. The same is true about other ministers. Once the Government's policy has been decided, each minister is expected to support it or resign. The individual responsibility of ministers for the work of their departments means that they are answerable to Parliament for all their departments' activities.
