Conventions regulating ministerial conduct are an ineffective means of ensuring that government ministers will be held accountable for their actions. Discuss.

Authors Avatar by lcb96livecouk (student)

                                       Public Law Semester 1 Assessment

In this assignment I am going to discuss the agreements that are in place to regulate the work of government ministers. I am also going to look at whether the ministerial code that is in place is an effective way to ensure that the work that government ministers do is regulated and that they are maintaining the public’s trust in the work that they do. I will then look at two examples of ministerial conduct from 2010 to present day to see if government ministers follow the code to make my conclusion of whether the code is an ineffective way of ensuring government ministers will be accountable for their actions.

Ministerial conduct and responsibilities refers to the idea that ministers have a set of standards to which they must adhere. They are expected to exemplify the highest standards of conduct, as they are both elected representatives and ministers of the Crown with a high level of responsibility for running the nation’s affairs.

There are two types of ministerial responsibility, the first is collective ministerial responsibility and the second is individual responsibility. Collective responsibility is the cabinet have to present an united front and all agree on the same decisions, if members can not agree on the same decisions then members would have to resign. Individual responsibility is when individuals make the decisions for their own department, and they are responsible for all decisions made. They are expected to accept responsibility for any failure in administration, any injustice to an individual or any aspect of policy, which may be criticised in parliament, whether personally or not. Individual ministerial responsibility also requires them to behave appropriately in their personal life and also be competent.

The Ministerial code is a code was put in place among other things to react to the observations of the public eye and to ensure the public have trust in the government who are in cabinet at the time. The first code was released in 1992; the codes have been renewed and adapted since then. The term “ministerial code” came in 1997 when Tony Blair released his conduct. The latest set of rules came in 2015 after the general election.

Join now!

The code has one annex and ten sections. Each section addresses a different principle. One example of a section is section 9, which is about the ministers in parliament. The main principle in this section is that the most important announcement should be made in the first instance when parliament is in session. This section also states that ministers should not make statements in parliament without approval from the prime minister. It also states that any other minister or MP that shall be mentioned should be notified before they are mentioned. The annex describes the seven principles of public ...

This is a preview of the whole essay