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Last updated: 06 May 2009
This chapter is designed to give you some additional detail about the types of Committees and how they operate in practice.
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Cabinet Committees relieve the pressure on Cabinet by settling business in a smaller forum or at a lower level.
Some Cabinet Committees have Sub-Committees. These tend to focus on a narrower range of issues than the full Committee, taking forward work on key areas.
Business may also be carried forward through MISC Groups, which are set up to carry out a particular task, usually over a limited timescale.
Cabinet Committees, Sub-Committees and MISC Groups are all types of Ministerial Committee and can all take decisions and give clearance.
There are also Official Committees, made up of officials from the relevant departments. Rigorous scrutiny and discussion of the issues by a strong official-level Committee can play a major role in making a Ministerial meeting effective. Official Committees are therefore usually arranged ahead of a Committee meeting to identify and clarify key issues prior to Ministerial discussion. They are chaired by the Cabinet Secretariat. More information is available in the section on Official Committee Meetings.
Each Cabinet Committee has clearly defined membership and terms of reference. These are decided by the Prime Minister on the advice of the Cabinet Secretary and are usually announced biannually by Parliamentary Written Statement.
Most Committee membership is assigned to a Ministerial position (e.g. Minister of State, BERR) and can be delegated to another Minister in the same department. However, for certain Committees the Prime Minister or Chair selects an individual to serve on a personal basis – it is not open to them to nominate another Minister to attend in their place (for example, PSX, the Committee on Public Services and Public Expenditure). Committee Chairs cannot nominate anyone else to attend in their place. In the absence of the Chair, if a Committee meeting is required or correspondence needs to be rounded up, the most senior available Minister on the Committee assumes the Chair’s role.
For Prime Minister chaired Committees, the Prime Minister may designate a Deputy Chair to chair in his absence.
The business of each Cabinet Committee will be managed by the relevant section of the Cabinet Secretariat. In a few cases there are joint secretariats involving another department (e.g. for the Public Services and Public Expenditure Committee (PSX), the Treasury is part of a joint secretariat with the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat.)
Each Cabinet Committee will be assigned Committee secretaries to monitor and manage the business of that Committee - Committee secretaries should be the first port of call when seeking advice on a Committee.
Meetings do not necessarily follow a regular timetable, unless one is explicitly set out in the terms of reference or agreed by the Committee. Committees will only meet when an issue needs to be discussed i.e. to resolve disputes / make difficult decisions. Otherwise business is transacted by correspondence.
For information on setting up a Committee meeting, please see the sections on Obtaining Policy Clearance and Committee Meetings.
For details of current Cabinet Committees and Sub-Committees, their membership and terms of reference, please refer to the full list of Cabinet Committees.
If you think you may need to clear policy through a Cabinet Committee, please read the section on Obtaining Policy Clearance.