The CabinetÂ’s role in decision making has been marginalised in recent governments

... Explain the term cabinet committees. (5 marks) Much of the decision-making orchestrated within the Core Executive is performed by cabinet committees which are appointed by the Prime Minister. They have two principal purposes: to uphold the convention of Collective Cabinet Responsibility and to reduce the workload of the Cabinet and there are two types of cabinet committees: those which are ad-hoc that deal with unexpected or temporary issues (e.g. COBRA), the other being standing committees which are named and permanent. They usually comprise departmental ministers and a representative of the Treasury (each department needs to control its budgetary allowance). A minority of the committees are significant in the way in which the Government determines its policy; in this case, senior members of the Cabinet (including the Prime Minister) usually chair such meetings. Conclusions made in these committees are often then presented to the Cabinet for consideration in a wider context. For

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