35
3
Ohage 36 of 200
Page 36 A former Minister may at any time have access in the Cabinet Office to copies of Cabinet or Cabinet Committee papers issued to him while in office.
To facilitate the recovery of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee papers and to ensure their safe custody Ministers are asked during their tenure of office to arrange for the regular return to the Cabinet Office (at intervals of, say, three to six months) of such Cabinet documents as are not required for current administration.
On a change of Government, the outgoing Prime Minister issues special instructions about the disposal of the Cabinet papers of his Administration.
Cabinet Committees
19. The procedure outlined above applies mutatis mutandis to Ministerial Committees of the Cabinet.
While Committee meetings provide a useful forum for the discussion of policy and for enabling Ministers to ensure that their points of view are understood and to make a contribution to the formulation of policy, their prime object is the despatch of business and the making of decisions. Attendance should be restricted to the permanent members and other Ministers who have a major interest in the question under discussion.
Collective Responsibility
20. Decisions reached by the Cabinet or Cabinet Committees are normally announced and defended by the Minister concerned as his own decisions. There may be rare occasions when it is desirable to emphasise the importance of some decision by stating specifically that it is the decision of Her Majesty's Government. This, however, should be the exception rather than the rule. The growth of any general practice whereby decisions of the Cabinet or of Cabinet Committees were announced as such would lead to the embarrassing result that some decisions of Government would be regarded as less authoritative than others. Critics of a decision reached by a particular Committee could press for its review by some other Committee or by the Cabinet, and the constitutional right of individual Ministers to speak in the name of the Government as a whole would be impaired.
21. The method adopted by Ministers for discussion among themselves of questions of policy is essentially a domestic matter, and is no concern of Parliament or the public. The doctrine of collective responsibility of Ministers depends, in practice, upon the existence of opportunities for free and frank discussion between them, and such discussion is hampered if the processes by which it is carried on are laid bare. For these reasons it is also the general practice to avoid, so far as possible, disclosing the composition and terms of reference of Cabinet Committees and, in particular, the identity of their Chairmen.
36
II. Precautions against Unauthorised Disclosures of Information
22. Disclosures in the Press of matters under discussion by the Cabinet or its Committees damage the reputation of the Government and impair the efficiency of its administration.
23. Ministers who share the collective responsibility for the Government's programme must be kept generally aware of the development of important aspects of Government policy. But outside this narrow circle knowledge of these matters should be confined to those, whether Ministers or officials, who are assisting in the formulation or execution of the particular policy concerned, or need to know what is afoot because of its effect on other aspects of public business for which they are responsible.
24. Government policy should not be discussed with persons outside Govern- ment service unless this is necessary for the transaction of public business. Care should be taken to see that no discussions of Government policy are held in places where they may be overheard.
25. Ministers are personally responsible for ensuring that all members of their staffs understand the need for exercising the strictest discretion, and for seeing.
42034