Talk:Minister for the Cabinet Office

So what does this minister do?
What are the responsibilities of this post? The article gives us no clue... --mcld (talk) 11:05, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

The resposibilities have varied with the changing priorities of the Cabinet Office. Maude's gov.uk profile says:

The Minister for the Cabinet Office has overall responsibility for the policy and work of the department. Responsibilities include:

public sector efficiency and reform Civil Service issues industrial relations strategy in the public sector government transparency civil contingencies civil society cyber security UK statistics

Thom2002 (talk) 19:01, 11 December 2013 (UTC)

Informal title
I notice that the style (Minister for the Cabinet Office rather than Minister of the Cabinet Office or Minister of State for the Cabinet Office) is that of a constitutionally informal office with no legal existence. This is supported by the fact that every incumbent so far has simultaneously held a sinecure (Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1997 to 2009 and Paymaster-General thereafter).

Would it be worth mentioning this in the article? Robin S. Taylor (talk) 23:27, 1 December 2016 (UTC)


 * All government positions in the British government are 'constitutionally informal' with no legal existence (though given the structure of the British constitution to describe something as constitutionally formal or informal is essentially meaningless). Possibly the Prime Minister/First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer/Second Lord of the Treasury, and the Lord Chancellor (though not the Secretary of State for Justice) could be considered exceptions to this, and considered constitutionally required offices, but even that argument would be debatable. The post of 'Minister of State for the Cabinet Office' is a different post to the 'Minister for the Cabinet Office' and is not currently in use: there have been at certain times, both a Minister and a Minister of State serving simultaneously. Nearly all legislation in the United Kingdom is delegated to be carried out by "Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State" deliberately avoiding naming a particularly post in an acknowledgement that no posts in the British government are constitutionally formalised. Ebonelm (talk) 12:00, 2 December 2016 (UTC)


 * I don't necessarily think that all positions in the British government are informal. Certainly the various secretaries of state are recognised by [|order in council] and are established by [|statutory instrument]. The ministers and parliamentary under-secretaries of state are [also recognised], although the specific portfolios are informal courtesy titles at the whim of the Prime Minister. There are also some scattered references to the Prime Minister's existence in some pieces of primary and secondary legislation, even if her actual powers are mostly held as First Lord of the Treasury. By "informal" I mean offices which have no legally prescribed existence (Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of the House of Commons, Leader of the House of Lords etc) whose incumbents draw their precedence and salary from a different position (either they are also a secretary of state or they hold one of the old sinecures). Minister for the Cabinet Office appears to fall into the latter category, as all of its incumbents have held a sinecure and I cannot find any legislative evidence for the title existing in its own right (indeed, no statutory basis for the Cabinet Office at all). Robin S. Taylor (talk) 10:50, 3 December 2016 (UTC)


 * I agree with Robin S. Taylor. There is quite clearly a statutory basis or recognition for secretaries of state, the Chancellor, the Prime Minister, etc. Most telling is that these come with a salary, whereas I'm fairly certain the Minister of State at the cabinet office does not. In truth, it is a more specific Minister without Portfolio. This should be mentioned in the article. Grollum (talk) 09:37, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

Distinction between Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Cabinet Office Minister
I note that the page claims that Gove is at present the minister. This has not been confirmed, as the government’s press release said that he has been appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, not Minister for the Cabinet Office. There is, moreover, no confirmation from any other reputable source that he has been made the minister as far as I am concerned. I shall therefore revert these unsourced edits forthwith. Docentation (talk) 18:52, 24 July 2019 (UTC)