What are the conventions of ministerial responsibility?
Individual ministerial responsibility is a constitutional convention in governments using the Westminster System that a cabinet minister bears the ultimate responsibility for the actions of their ministry or department.
What is the ministerial responsibility and why is it important?
Ministerial responsibility is central to the parliamentary system, because it ensures the accountability of the government to the legislature and thus, ultimately, to the population. This principle is mainly based on a body of constitutional conventions, established by precedents, rather than on positive statutes.
What is meant by ministerial responsibility in the British political system?
Cabinet collective responsibility, also known as collective ministerial responsibility, is a constitutional convention in parliamentary systems that members of the cabinet must publicly support all governmental decisions made in Cabinet, even if they do not privately agree with them.
What is the responsibility of a minister?
A minister is an ordained spiritual leader, who holds prayer services, preaches to people in church, leads worship services on Sundays and on holy days, teaches religion classes, and meets with those seeking personal or spiritual direction.
What are the 4 main roles of the Houses of Parliament?
The Australian Parliament has four main roles:
- Making and changing federal laws.
- Representing the people of Australia.
- Providing a place where government is formed.
- Keeping a check on the work of the government.
What is the Salisbury Addison convention?
The Salisbury-Addison Convention was an agreement between the Labour Leader of the House of Lords in 1945, Viscount Addison, and the Conservative Leader in the Lords, Viscount Cranborne (the Marquess of Salisbury) to deal with the relationship between a Labour Government and a House of Lords with an overwhelmingly …
What is ministerial accountability based on?
What is ministerial accountability based on? The principle of individual ministerial accountability – that ministers are democratically elected and drawn from Parliament, and they are the ones who take decisions in government, so should primarily be answerable to Parliament – is based on convention and precedent.
Who are ministers accountable to?
Parliament
Ministers are accountable to Parliament for the exercise of authority assigned to the Crown under the constitution and under statutory law.
Is there a difference between a minister and a pastor?
The term “pastor” means an “elder, overseer or shepherd.” 2. The pastor of the Roman Catholic Church is the priest of the parish. The term “minister” means “preacher.” All pastors can perform the duties of a minister, but not all ministers can act as pastors.
Why does Australia have two houses of parliament?
Why do we need two Houses of Parliament? So, the House of Representatives ensures that every Australian is represented equally in Parliament, while the Senate helps to ensure that states are represented equally. This is why the Senate is sometimes called the ‘states’ House’.
What is the lower house in Australia?
The House of Representatives, also called the ‘lower house’, is made up of 150 members elected from individual electorates all around Australia. The second house—the Senate or ‘upper house’—has 76 elected representatives elected by voters from each state and territory.
What is the Convention of ministerial accountability?
Since 1997 the convention of ministerial accountability has also been set out in the Ministerial Code which states that ‘Ministers have a duty to Parliament to account, and be held to account, for the policies, decisions and actions of their departments and agencies’.
Is the doctrine of individual ministerial responsibility a constitutional convention?
Whilst the doctrine of individual ministerial responsibility is a constitutional convention. There is no formal mechanism for enforcing it, meaning that today ministers frequently use ignorance of misbehaviour as an argument for lack of culpability.
What is individual ministerial responsibility (IMR)?
Individual Ministerial Responsibility is a constitutional convention that makes Government Ministers responsible for not only their own actions, but also for those of their department. It is not to be confused with collective cabinet responsibility, which states that cabinet members must approve publicly of its collective decisions or resign.
What does it mean for ministers to be accountable to Parliament?
Being accountable to Parliament means that ministers have to explain and provide information on what is happening in their area of responsibility. It can also mean a duty to take remedial action or apologise for failures. Ultimately it also means an expectation that they should resign if something has gone seriously wrong.