70 Whitehall, Westminster | |
Department overview | |
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Formed | December 1916 |
Preceding Department | |
Jurisdiction | Government of the United Kingdom |
Headquarters | 70 Whitehall, London, United Kingdom 51°30′13″N0°7′36″W / 51.50361°N 0.12667°W |
Employees | 10,220 (as of December 2021 [update] ) [1] |
Annual budget | £2.1 billion (current) & £400 million (capital) for 2011–12 [2] |
Ministers responsible |
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Department executives | |
Child agencies | |
Website | gov |
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Politics of the United Kingdom |
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The Cabinet Office is a department of the UK Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. [3] It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and coordinate the delivery of government objectives via other departments. As of December 2021, it had over 10,200 staff, mostly civil servants, some of whom work in Whitehall. Staff working in the Prime Minister's Office are part of the Cabinet Office.
The Cabinet Office's core functions are: [4]
The Cabinet Office has responsibility for the following at the UK national level:
UK Government Procurement Policy Notes are issued in the name of the Cabinet Office, although in the past they were issued by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS). [8] The CCS Helpdesk continues to act as the contact point for any queries. [9]
In October 2023 the government announced the establishment of a National Security Unit for Procurement within the Cabinet Office, which
"will work across government, including with our national security community, to investigate suppliers who could pose a risk to national security. The Unit will create a new layer of protection, by assessing whether companies should be struck off from competing to supply goods and services to the public sector where they pose a threat." [10]
The department was formed in December 1916 from the secretariat of the Committee of Imperial Defence [11] under Sir Maurice Hankey, the first Cabinet Secretary.
Traditionally the most important part of the Cabinet Office's role was facilitating collective decision-making by the Cabinet, through running and supporting Cabinet-level committees. This is still its principal role, but since the absorption of some of the functions of the Civil Service Department in 1981 the Cabinet Office has also helped to ensure that a wide range of Ministerial priorities are taken forward across Whitehall.
It also contains miscellaneous units that do not sit well in other departments. For example:
In modern times the Cabinet Office often takes on responsibility for areas of policy which are the priority of the Government of the time. The units that administer these areas migrate in and out of the Cabinet Office as government priorities (and governments) change.
The Cabinet Office Ministers are as follows, with cabinet ministers in bold: [13]
Minister | Portrait | Office | Portfolio |
---|---|---|---|
The Rt Hon. Rishi Sunak MP | Prime Minister First Lord of the Treasury Minister for the Civil Service Minister for the Union | Head of government; oversees the operation of the Civil Service and government agencies; appoints members of the government; he is the principal government figure in the House of Commons. | |
The Rt Hon. Oliver Dowden CBE MP | Deputy Prime Minister Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Secretary of State in the Cabinet Office | Deputy Prime Minister [14] Driving delivery of government’s priorities; Oversight of all Cabinet Office policy; Oversight of civil contingencies and resilience; National security and cyber security; Economic security, including National Security and Investment Act; Oversight of Cabinet Office business planning; Oversight of major events; Propriety and ethics; Public appointments; Honours; GREAT campaign. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Secretary of State in the Cabinet Office [15] The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster administers the estates and rents of the Duchy of Lancaster, and is a member of the Cabinet. After the Prime Minister, he is the most senior minister in the Cabinet Office. Responsibilities: Driving delivery of Government’s priorities; Oversight of all Cabinet Office policy; Oversight of civil contingencies & resilience (inc. COBR); National Security including Cyber Security; Oversight of Cabinet Office business planning; Oversight of Major Events; Propriety and Ethics; Oversight of Cabinet work on science, technology, and innovation; Public Appointments; Honours; GREAT campaign; National Security & Investment. | |
The Rt Hon. John Glen MP | Minister for the Cabinet Office Paymaster General | Delivery of the government’s efficiency programme; Civil Service Modernisation and Reform; Places for growth programme; Cabinet Office business planning and performance; Infected Blood Inquiry; Public bodies reform programme; Spend controls reform; Oversight of the cross-cutting functions and government functional strategy. Additionally supports the Deputy Prime Minister on: Driving delivery of the government’s priorities; Civil contingencies and resilience. [16] | |
The Rt Hon. Esther McVey MP | Minister of State without Portfolio | Supporting DPM on driving delivery of Government’s priorities; Supporting DPM and MCO on ensuring efficiency and value for money in Government policy; Supporting DPM and MCO on ensuring efficiency and value for money in Government delivery; Ensuring effective communication of Government’s priorities; Public Bodies reform programme (supporting MCO); Public appointments outreach (supporting DPM and BNR). [17] | |
The Rt Hon. Johnny Mercer MP | Minister of State for Veterans Affairs | Civilian and service personnel policy; armed forces pay, pensions and compensation; Armed Forces Covenant; welfare and service families; community engagement; equality, diversity and inclusion; veterans (including resettlement, transition, defence charities and Ministerial Covenant and Veterans Board, and Office of Veteran Affairs); legacy issues and non-operational public inquiries and inquests; mental health; Defence Medical Services; the people programme (Flexible Engagement Strategy, Future Accommodation Model and Enterprise Approach); estates service family accommodation policy and engagement with welfare. | |
The Rt Hon. Steve Baker FRSA MP | Minister of State in the Cabinet Office | Responsible for Windsor Framework implementation. | |
The Rt Hon. Baroness Neville-Rolfe DBE CMG | Minister of State at the Cabinet Office | Cabinet Office business in the Lords; Procurement Bill; COVID-19 Commemoration; Transparency and Freedom of Information; Sponsorship of UK Statistics Authority and Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman; Geospatial Commission; Supporting the Minister for the Cabinet Office on the delivery of civil service efficiency and modernisation; Supporting the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on honours; Supporting the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on borders, including the Single Trade Window. | |
Alex Burghart MP | Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office | Supporting the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in matters relating to the Constitution, the Union, and intergovernmental relations; Government inquiries – Infected Blood, Grenfell Tower, COVID-19; Procurement Bill; secondary legislation; support to Minister for the Cabinet Office on day-to-day management of the Government functions and Government Business Services. | |
Alan Mak FRSA MP | Parliamentary Secretary for the Investment Security Unit | Responsible for the Investment Security Unit. |
Leaders of the Houses of Commons and Lords supported by the Cabinet Office are as follows:
Minister | Portrait | Office | Portfolio |
---|---|---|---|
The Rt Hon. Penny Mordaunt MP | Leader of the House of Commons Lord President of the Council | The Government's Legislative Programme, chairing the Cabinet Committee; Managing and announcing the business of the House of Commons weekly and facilitating motions and debate in the Chamber, particularly on House business; Government's representative in the House (sitting on the House of Commons Commission, Public Accounts Commission, and the Speaker's Committees on the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority); House of Commons representative in Government; Parliamentary reform and policy; Ministerial responsibility for the Privy Council Office. | |
The Rt Hon. Lord True CBE PC | Leader of the House of Lords Lord Privy Seal | Management and delivery of the Government's legislative programme (through the House of Lords) and facilitating the passage of individual bills; Leading the House (in the Chamber and as a key member of domestic committees to do with procedure, conduct, and the internal governance of the House); Issues connected to the House of Lords and its governance; Speaking for the Government in the Chamber on a range of issues, including repeating in the House of Lords statements made to the Commons by the Prime Minister; Ceremonial and other duties as the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. | |
The Rt Hon. Earl Howe GBE PC | Deputy Leader of the House of Lords | The Deputy Leader of the House of Lords supports the House of Lords in its job of questioning government ministers, improving legislation and debating topics of national significance. |
The Cabinet Office senior civil servants are as follows:
Name | Portrait | Position | Term start |
---|---|---|---|
The Rt Hon. Simon Case CVO [18] | Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service | 9 September 2020 | |
Cat Little | Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of the Home Civil Service | 1 April 2024 | |
Sir Tim Barrow GCMG LVO MBE [19] | National Security Adviser | 7 September 2022 | |
The Cabinet Office also supports the work of the Whips Offices of the House of Lords and House of Commons.
The Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Cabinet Office supports the work of ministers.
Cabinet committees have two key purposes: [20]
The main building of the Cabinet Office is at 70 Whitehall , adjacent to Downing Street. The building connects three historically distinct properties, as well as the remains of Henry VIII's 1530 tennis courts, part of the Palace of Whitehall, which can be seen within the building. The Whitehall frontage was designed by Sir John Soane and completed by Sir Charles Barry between 1845 and 1847 as the Treasury Buildings. Immediately to the west Dorset House (1700) connects the front of the building to William Kent's Treasury (1733–36), which faces out onto Horse Guards Parade. The latter is built over the site of the Cockpit, used for cock fighting in the Tudor period, and subsequently as a theatre. In the early 1960s the buildings were restored and many of the Tudor remains were exposed and repaired. Significant renovations between 2010 and 2016 converted many of the floors to open plan and created new office space. The Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms are located on this site.
The department occupies other buildings in Whitehall and the surrounding area, including part of 1 Horse Guards, as well as sites in other parts of the country.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID). The FCO was itself created in 1968 by the merger of the Foreign Office (FO) and the Commonwealth Office. The department in its various forms is responsible for representing and promoting British interests worldwide.
The Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS), created in July 2001 and disbanded in July 2022, was the executive department of the British Cabinet Office responsible for emergency planning in the UK. The role of the secretariat was to ensure the United Kingdom's resilience against disruptive challenge, and to do this by working with others to anticipate, assess, prevent, prepare, respond and recover. Until its creation in 2001, emergency planning in Britain was the responsibility of the Home Office. The CCS also supports the Civil Contingencies Committee, also known as COBR.
The Ministry of Defence is the department responsible for implementing the defence policy set by His Majesty's Government, and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces.
The Scottish Government is the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution. It has the responsibility for the economy of Scotland, the educational system in Scotland, health care, justice, Scots law, rural affairs, housing, environment, equal opportunities, the transportation network and tax, amongst others.
The War Office has referred to several British government organisations in history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). It was at that time, equivalent to the Admiralty, responsible for the Royal Navy (RN), and the Air Ministry, which oversaw the Royal Air Force (RAF). The name 'War Office' is also given to the former home of the department, located at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall in central London. The landmark building was sold on 1 March 2016 by HM Government for more than £350 million, on a 250 year lease for conversion into a luxury hotel and residential apartments.
The Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) was a UK government agency providing computer and telecoms support to government departments.
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) is the unit of the British government with responsibility for social equality. The office has lead responsibility for gender equality within the UK government, together with a responsibility to provide advice on all other forms of equality to other UK government departments. The unit is based at the Cabinet Office. Prior to April 2019, the GEO was led concurrently by Cabinet Secretaries at the Home Office, DFID and DfE. The day-to-day responsibility for policy on these issues was not transferred to GEO when it was created. The Equalities Office currently leads the Discrimination Law Review, which developed the Equality Act 2010 that replaced previous anti-discrimination legislation. The current minister responsible for GEO is Kemi Badenoch, who also serves as Secretary of State for Business and Trade in the Rishi Sunak government.
Crown Agents Ltd is a not-for-profit international development company with head office in London, United Kingdom, and subsidiaries in the United States and Japan. Incorporated as a private limited company Crown Agents Ltd has only one shareholder – the Crown Agents Foundation, a not-for-profit company. Crown Agents Ltd's registered office is in Southwark, London.
The National Security Adviser (NSA) is a senior official in the Cabinet Office, based in Whitehall, who serves as the principal adviser to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Cabinet of the United Kingdom on all national security issues. The NSA post was created in May 2010 as part of the reforms that also saw the creation of the National Security Council. There have been six holders of the office to date, of whom two served more than three years in the post.
Crown Copyright has been a long-standing copyright protection applied to official works, and at times artistic works, produced under royal or official supervision. In 2006, The Guardian newspaper's Technology section began a "Free Our Data" campaign, calling for data gathered by authorities at public expense to be made freely available for reuse by individuals. In 2010 with the creation of the Open Government Licence and the Data.gov.uk site it appeared that the campaign had been mostly successful, and since 2013 the UK has been consistently named one of the leaders in the open data space.
The Department for Exiting the European Union was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for overseeing negotiations relating to Brexit, and establishing the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the EU. It was formed by the Prime Minister, Theresa May, in July 2016, in the wake of the referendum vote to leave the European Union. The department was dissolved on 31 January 2020 when Brexit took effect.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) was a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for striking and extending trade agreements between the United Kingdom and foreign countries, as well as for encouraging foreign investment and export trade. The department existed between 2016 and 2023.
The Government Property Agency (GPA) is an executive agency of the Cabinet Office, a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Formed in April 2018, it is responsible for managing government property and advising government departments in their management of property.
At around £290 billion every year, public sector procurement accounts for around a third of all public expenditure in the UK. EU-based laws continue to apply to government procurement: procurement is governed by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Part 3 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, and the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations of 2015 and 2016. These regulations implement EU law, which applied in the UK prior to Brexit, and also contain rules known as the "Lord Young Rules" promoting access for small and medium enterprise (SMEs) to public sector contracts, based on Lord Young's Review Growing Your Business, published in 2013.
The minister of state for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency was a ministerial office in the Cabinet Office in the Government of the United Kingdom. This position was created by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in February 2020 as a renaming of Minister of State for the Treasury with new responsibilities. It was a joint office with HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office from 2020 to 2022. After Jacob Rees-Mogg was appointed in February 2022, the role was made a full member of the Cabinet; he was based solely at the Cabinet Office. Following Rees-Mogg's departure on 6 September 2022, to become Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy under Liz Truss, no replacement was appointed and office was abolished.
The Minister of State for Industry and Economic Security is a mid-level role in the Department of Business and Trade of His Majesty's Government. It has been held by Alan Mak since 26 March 2024.
Uganda–United Kingdom relations refer to bilateral relations between Uganda and the United Kingdom. Uganda has a high commission in London and the United Kingdom has a high commission in Kampala. For 2022/2023, UK's aid budget to Uganda was listed at £32.8 million.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is a department of His Majesty's Government established on 7 February 2023, after a government reshuffle, the first by prime minister Rishi Sunak. The new department absorbed the functions of the former Department for International Trade (DIT) and some of the functions of the former Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is a department of the government of the United Kingdom. Established by Rishi Sunak in February 2023, DSIT took on policy responsibilities from the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The new department is responsible for helping to encourage, develop and manage the UK's scientific, research, and technological outputs. DSIT is also responsible for managing the necessary physical and digital infrastructure and regulation to support the British economy, UK public services, national security, and wider UK Government priorities.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is a department of His Majesty's Government established on 7 February 2023 after a government reshuffle, the first by prime minister Rishi Sunak. The new department took on the energy policy responsibilities of the former Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).