What is the executive and what are its functions and powers?
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What is the executive?
• The term ‘executive’ refers to the government: those who make the key decisions and run the country day to day.
• In the UK system, the party with the most seats in the House of Commons is typically invited to form a government.
• The government – which is made up of the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and various junior ministers – is drawn from individuals who sit in Parliament, usually from the winning party.
• The Prime Minister is normally the leader of that party, and they have the power to appoint the other members of the government.
• This includes the most important ‘Great Offices of State’: the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is in charge of economic policy; the Foreign Secretary; and the Home Secretary.
•However, there are many more government departments, each led by a Secretary of State or their equivalent and appointed by the Prime Minister.
• The executive holds a lot of power within the UK system.
• Most legislation is introduced to Parliament by the government, which to a large extent controls the agenda and time of the House of Commons.
• The government proposes an annual budget which sets out how it will spend money over the coming year.
• The government also has the discretion to make a broad range of policy decisions in areas such as transport, education and health.
• These policies are often carried out through what is known as secondary or delegated legislation.
• Acts of Parliament often grant ministers and other bodies extensive powers that can be used to develop a policy further, without having to go through the full process of passing a new statute.
• These delegated executive powers can be broad, but ministers are not allowed to go beyond what is set out in primary legislation.
• If they do, this can be challenged in the courts through judicial review.
The main roles of the executive in the UK
The Royal Prerogative
The executive also holds other powers, called Royal Prerogative powers.
These are the powers that are in theory attached to the monarch, but are now in practice largely exercised by the government.
They can be used without having to get consent from Parliament.
They include powers to conduct foreign policy, including conducting diplomacy and deploying the army, to grant honours, and to prorogue Parliament (which means to end its current session).
These powers have often been controversial, as there are limited checks and constraints on their use by the executive.
Portrait of Queen Victoria, Franz Xaver Wintholter Studio, 1843, The Everett Collection
The executive and the constitution
• The role and powers of the executive are in many ways unclear, as many of them are defined only by conventions, rules which do not have any formal legal basis.
• There is no single legal document that clearly defines the role of the government and the limits of its power.
• Prerogative powers are a particular source of confusion.
• They are not set out in statute, but come from the common law (law which is developed by judges in relation to customs and precedents).
• It is difficult to say exactly what prerogative powers still exist as some of them have not been used for many centuries.
• Furthermore, there is no generally accepted definition of what constitutes a Royal Prerogative and their scope, according to the Ministry of Justice, ‘is notoriously difficult to determine.’
• The Cabinet is the most senior, formal decision-making body of government.
• It is chaired by the Prime Minister and made up of the most senior ministers.
• The Prime Minister decides who can attend Cabinet.
• The Cabinet is intended to provide a forum for the Prime Minister and their ministers to discuss and decide together on the government’s policies and what approach it should take to issues.
• The Prime Minister decides who are the senior and junior ministers in government.
• They decide which ministers can attend Cabinet meetings.
• There are, however, some positions that would always be expected to be in the Cabinet.
• The appointment of ministers takes place under the Royal Prerogative.
• So, the power of appointment really rests with the Prime Minister.
The Cabinet
• It is sometimes said that cabinet government has been weakened by some Prime Ministers in recent times.
• They have been accused of not properly consulting with their Cabinets, or allowing for a full and proper discussion amongst Cabinet members.
• This is where he would discuss important policy issues with particular ministers or advisers outside of Cabinet meetings.
• Cabinet meetings would then be short with limited discussion of policies that had been largely been agreed elsewhere.
• Tony Blair was accused of governing in a more ‘presidential’ style because of this.
• David Cameron pledged to end this ‘presidential style’, but the coalition government was in the end dominated by the ‘quad’, who made most of the key decisions.
• Criticism has only increased since that time, and some have even argued the UK now has a ‘semi-presidential’ system of government.
Criticisms of modern prime ministers
Collective cabinet responsibility explored
• The outward facing aspect of collective responsibility is that all ministers unite publicly around decisions reached, regardless of their private opinions.
• If they are not able to refrain publicly from disagreeing with policy, they are supposed to resign.
• However, collective cabinet responsibility in this sense can sometimes be explicitly set aside.
• The premiership of Theresa May in particular was marked by prominent apparent breaches of collective cabinet responsibility
• Ministers regularly publicly expressed dissent from the government’s Brexit position, leaks of Cabinet discussions were commonplace, and various ministers publicly advocated alternative Brexit policies.
• This even extended to ministers voting against the government.
• Typically, a minister would be expected to resign or be sacked in these circumstances. However, Theresa May often did not take action for such breaches of cabinet collective responsibility, which in turn encouraged more disloyalty.
• It is far harder to maintain cabinet collective responsibility if there are deep divisions on an issue within the governing party – as was the case for the Conservatives in relation to Brexit.
• On becoming Prime Minister, Boris Johnson appointed a Cabinet primarily made up of people who had supported Brexit or were clearly willing to do so in future, which avoided some of the problems faced by his predecessors. Issues reemerged under the terms of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, and while things have calmed down since, today debate remains about the strength (or otherwise) of cabinet collective responsibility.
• Individual ministerial responsibility refers to a constitutional convention according to which government ministers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their department.
• The convention dictates that if there is a failure in the department, the minister in charge of that department bears the responsibility, even if the mistake isn’t directly their fault.
• The error may have been the result of poor departmental processes or have come from a civil servant.
• Nevertheless, in these situations, it is the minister who must answer for what went wrong and who would be expected to resign if the failing was serious enough.
• The minister is accountable to Parliament for the actions of their department – they must come before Parliament and explain why certain decisions have been taken.
•Ministers don’t always resign, though. For example, after the exam results fiasco in 2020, the Secretary of State for education, Gavin Williamson, refused to resign despite a major failing and subsequent U-turn by his department.
• Although it is not set out in law, the principle of ministerial accountability to Parliament is detailed in the Ministerial Code. In 2018, then-Home Secretary Amber Rudd resigned in relation to the Windrush scandal, despite the fact that the scandal originated under her predecessor, Theresa May.
Individual ministerial responsibility
• Visit The Constitution Society website for up to date analysis on the UK’s evolving constitution.
• The Constitution Society is an independent, non-party educational foundation which works to promote informed debate about constitutional reform.
• We take no position on specific reform proposals but advocate better legislative standards and oppose ill-considered, piecemeal change.
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