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Cabinet Committees and the devolved administrations

Members of the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not bound by the collective responsibility which applies solely to members of the UK Government. They are not members of Cabinet Committees. Exceptionally, with the consent of the relevant Chair, they may be invited to attend, for example, Committee meetings dealing with emergency response.

Whenever a devolved administration is involved in Committee business, the relevant territorial office (Scotland Office, Wales Office, Northern Ireland Office) should be kept abreast of what is happening.

The most appropriate forum for formal discussions of policy issues with the devolved administrations, however, is the Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) established under the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK Government and devolved administrations. JMC is a deliberative, rather than a decision-making body.

It meets in a variety of formats. JMC (Europe) meets approximate quarterly (the joint Secretariat is led on the Government side by European and Global Issues Secretariat in the Cabinet Office). Other formats are being developed (after a period in which the Committee was largely inactive); the joint Secretariat is led by the Devolution Secretariat within Economic and Domestic Secretariat in the Cabinet Office.