Ministerial responsibility under the British Constitution
1) Introduction
● One of the salient features of the British cabinet is Ministerial responsibility. The cabinet members are responsible to the house of common individuals as well as collectively for their every act of commission or omission within their cabinet. Every member or every minister being a head of his department is answerable to the public as well as to the house of common and king. It also comes under the ministerial responsibility that every member of the cabinet must approve publicly of its collective decisions or resign. As well as Ministers are individually responsible for the work of their departments and are answerable to Parliament for all their department activities.
2) Meaning of Ministerial responsibility
Following are the two ministerial responsibilities
I. Parliamentary responsibility
● This is the responsibility of the ministers to acquire the confidence of the house of common. If they fail to acquire the confidence of the house of common and the minister does not sign the resignation from his office to leave his post, there is no provision in law to compel him for signing the resignation because it is the matter of convention and not of law. It is called parliamentary responsibility
II. Legal responsibility
● If a minister loses the confidence of the house of common, a legal responsibility imposes on him which means every minister is answerable before the court for his acts on the behalf of the king because all acts are being endorsed by the king. This is a matter of law not merely a matter of conventions
3) Origin of Ministerial responsibility
● In early age, the British kings were absolute rulers but when parliament became the sovereign body, it began to punish the ministers by means of impeachment. Then the king began to choose ministers from parliament. It is defined that if a member wins the confidence of the house will be elected as minister and if he fails to win the confidence of house he will have to resign. During the 19th century this concept has been fully developed
4) Importance of Ministerial responsibility
● Ministerial responsibility is an important principle in British cabinet because this principle makes the government answerable for his deeds before the courts as well as public and king too
5) Features of ministerial responsibility
Following are of three features of the ministerial responsibility
I. Responsibility to the king
● It is the responsibility of the ministers to keep the king informed about their activities or what they do. This feature shows that all minister are responsible for their acts before the king as well as responsible for their decisions
II. Responsibility to one another
● The cabinet as a whole is answerable for the acts of its members. The minister either agrees with the decision of the cabinet or not agrees but he would also be considered answerable for this decision. And minister will have to follow the policy which has been decided in the joint meeting of the ministers
III. Responsibility to the house of common
● The ministers are also responsible to the House of the commons.The members can also be criticized by the house of common. The cabinet only can remain in the office if they win the confidence of the house of common if they fail to win the confidence of the house , cabinet will be dissolved by the house
6) Types of Ministerial responsibility
Following are the types of ministerial responsibility
I. Individual ministerial responsibility
● As every minister is a political head of his department and is a most senior official of the state. It is therefore each and every minister is answerable to the parliament for his work and decisions as well as he personally is responsible for any breach of law and answerable before the court
● If a minister commits a mistake which harms his department ,in this case he individually responsible and he will have to resign from his post but if the Prime minister or cabinet come to his defense ,it becomes a matter of collective responsibility
II. Collective ministerial responsibility
● In this case all ministers are responsible whether they are included in the cabinet or not. Whether they attended the cabinet meeting or not. If the policy comes under an obligation then all ministers were held responsible for this
7) Advantages of the ministerial responsibility
This concept gives the three merits to the British system of government
I. Answerable to the public
● Keeping in view this concept, there are all members of the cabinet are responsible for their deeds ,policies ,decisions made, before the public and answerable to people which is best for administration of country affairs
II. Unity of cabinet
● All of the ministers of the cabinet know that their cabinet will remain in office till they are united.
● Anyone who disagrees with the policy he will have to resign or will be removed from cabinet by the Queen on the advice of Prime Minister
III. Efficiency of government
● In order to enhance their ministerial work. Every minister keeps himself informed that what his colleagues and the cabinet are doing in related to official affairs
8) Conclusion
● The concept of ministerial responsibility deeply influenced the British government system or cabinet , by this concept the system is developing rapidly and growing positively. And all ministers who are empowered by the parliament , and they are answerable before the parliament for their deeds and policies. This concept is help the British government to improve their mechanism or work and able to set himself on high place in the world