The Q&A series offers the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each chapter includes typical questions, diagram problem and essay answer plans, suggested answers, notes of caution, tips on obtaining extra marks, the key debates on each topic, and suggestions on further reading. This chapter presents issues relating to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The sample questions given here deal with issues such as the extent to which the UK has moved from a system of Cabinet government to a system of Prime Ministerial government; collective ministerial responsibility; and how the convention of individual ministerial responsibility operates in relation to departmental error.
Chapter
3. Prime Minister and Cabinet
Chapter
4. The royal prerogative
The Q&A series offers the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each chapter includes typical questions, diagram problem and essay answer plans, suggested answers, notes of caution, tips on obtaining extra marks, the key debates on each topic, and suggestions on further reading. This chapter considers the royal prerogative. The questions deal with issues such as the continued existence of prerogative power; the Queen’s formal legal power; the UK government’s exercise of royal prerogative powers; the use of the prerogative in foreign affairs; and judicial review of the prerogative. Many of the prerogative powers are now exercised by the Prime Minister in the name of the Queen.
Chapter
5. The Royal Prerogative and Constitutional Conventions
This chapter reviews the royal prerogative and constitutional conventions, and the relationship between these two sources of constitutional rules. The first section identifies the various types of prerogative power and explores recent examples where these such powers have been placed on a statutory basis, as well as proposals to reverse this process, such as by repealing the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 and reviving the royal prerogative. It also examines attempts to codify constitutional practice, including the Crown’s personal prerogative of the appointment of the Prime Minister in the Cabinet Manual, and the interaction between prerogative and statute in the courts. The second section of the chapter explores constitutional conventions as a source of the constitution, their relationship with law, and their nature as rules of political behaviour. It considers the treatment of conventions in the courts, whether they can obtain legal force, and the feasibility and desirability of codifying conventions. The important connections between the royal prerogative and constitutional conventions are analysed at various points throughout the chapter.
Chapter
7. Central government
This chapter examines the structure and role of central government, with the latter part focusing on the key constitutional requirement that the government is accountable to the people through Parliament, reflecting the democratic nature of the constitution. The phrase ‘central government’ refers to the Prime Minister, Cabinet, ministers, government departments, and civil servants. Informally, these parts of central government are often referred to as ‘Whitehall’, reflecting how most government departments and the Prime Minister are based around that area of central London close to Westminster. A more constitutionally appropriate phrase is the ‘executive’. However, this term can also be taken to mean other elements which include the governments of Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales, as well as local government and organizations such as the police.
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R (on the application of FDA) v Prime Minister [2021] EWHC 3279 (Admin), Queen’s Bench Divisional Court
Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R (on the application of FDA) v Prime Minister [2021] EWHC 3279 (Admin), Queen’s Bench Divisional Court. This case concerned the justiciability of provisions in the Ministerial Code relating to bullying, harassment, and discrimination, and the decision of the Prime Minister in relation to an alleged breach of that Code by the Home Secretary. The document also includes supporting commentary and questions from author, Thomas Webb.
Chapter
7. Conventions
This chapter outlines the significance of conventions and their roles in the constitution. It notes that conventions reflect ideas about the constitution’s operation. Constitutional conventions are behaviours expected to be followed by constitutional actors. The chapter explains that courts will not directly enforce a convention, but they can still use them in their reasoning, and might do that indirectly. The chapter then provides an overview of typical conventions, such as the monarch’s appointment of the Prime Minister, ministerial responsibility to Parliament, and the circumstances in which Parliament must approve the use of military force.
