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About Cabinet Secretariat

The Cabinet Secretariat is non-departmental in function and purpose.

It is located within the Cabinet Office, but reports to the Prime Minister and Ministers who chair committees.

The Cabinet Secretariat's overarching aim is to ensure that the business of Government is conducted in a timely and efficient way and that proper collective consideration takes place when it is needed before policy decisions are taken. Through this work the Cabinet Secretariat contributes to two of the Cabinet Office's overarching aims: to support the Prime Minister in leading the government and to achieve coordination of policy and operations across government.

The head of the Secretariat is the Secretary of the Cabinet (Sir Gus O'Donnell).

Structure and Purpose

The Secretariat is composed of six individual secretariats. Of these, five provide support to Cabinet and its Committees:

• The Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat deals with all domestic and economic issues, including providing the Secretariat to the National Economic Council jointly with HM Treasury. It also manages the legislative programme, advises the Business Managers on Parliamentary procedure, supports ministers in their relations with devolved administrations, assists the Prime Minister and the Secretary of the Cabinet in matters affecting the machinery of Government and coordinates policy on public sector pay.
• The European and Global Issues Secretariat is responsible for coordinating the collective agreement of the Government's International Economic and European policy and to provide advice on these matters to the Prime Minister
• The Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat is responsible for coordinating the formation of policy on a wide range of defence, security and foreign policy issues. It also coordinates the Government's response (military, economic and diplomatic) to crises overseas.
• The National Security Secretariat is responsible for ensuring that all aspects of the nation’s security are strengthened. It also co-ordinates and provides advice to the Prime Minister on counter terrorism matters, and manages the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms and other crisis mangement response facilities.
• The Honours and Appointments Secretariat is responsible for Honours policy work across Government and the preparation of the Prime Minister's half-yearly Honours List.
• The Civil Contingencies Secretariat is responsible for improving the UK 's resilience to disruptive challenges. It co-ordinates both strategy and delivery and identifies potential disruptive challenges.

Support staff within the secretariat work directly with Departmental private offices to arrange meetings and handle day-to-day paperwork for Ministerial and official committees.

Working with Number 10

There are close links between the secretariats and Number 10. These are needed in the planning of business and to ensure that the Prime Minister's views are taken into account, particularly where business will not come before Cabinet or a Cabinet Committee which he chairs. The secretariats also work closely with the Number 10 private office and policy unit, the Strategy Unit and the Delivery Unit to prepare briefing for the Prime Minister and to support his meetings.

Cabinet Committees

The following links provide information on:

• Cabinet and its Committees - a high level, general description of their nature and roles and a list of the membership and terms of reference of the existing Committees.
• Handling Cabinet Committee Business - a detailed guide of the processes designed for departments.