ministerial responsibility

ministerial responsibility, a fundamental constitutional principle in the British Westminster parliamentary system according to which ministers are responsible to the parliament for the conduct of their ministry and government as a whole. 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. In some countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada, the legal standing of ministerial responsibility is also based on the oath taken by each minister upon becoming a member of the Privy Council. Ministers—known as ministers of the crown in Commonwealth countries—have both a collective and an individual responsibility to the parliament.

The collective responsibility of ministers to the parliament takes different forms. First and foremost, it signifies that the government remains in office only so long as it retains the confidence of the parliament and that all ministers stand or fall together with that government. Ministers must support government policies, but they must also resign or seek the dissolution of the government if defeated in the parliament on a matter of confidence (for instance, a vote on the budget). Collective responsibility implies that ministers are bound by the decisions of the cabinet, even when they had no part in their discussion or decision. Second, all members of the government speak in concert in the parliament, unless the prime minister relieves them of that duty. This can happen when the government has no stated policy on an issue and allows a free vote to take place in the parliament or when the prime minister allows a member of his or her government to differ publicly from a policy. Members of government are also allowed to engage in frank debates and disagreements in private, prior to the cabinet’s decision. This freedom, however, entails another form of collective responsibility, since ministers are bound to respect the confidentiality of these discussions and to present a united front after a decision has been reached. The principle of ministerial responsibility ensures that the government acts as one entity and that this entity is answerable and accountable to the parliament.

Individually, ministers are also personally responsible to the parliament. This responsibility includes the minister’s own conduct, but it also extends to the agencies and departments under his or her purview and all actions taken by their civil servants. In case of any wrongdoing or mistake, the minister can be called on to take action to correct the situation, to apologize, and even in some cases to resign from a cabinet position. It is important to note that while this convention makes ministers politically responsible for their civil servants, it does not relieve the latter from their obligation to obey the law. Similarly, while ministers must take responsibility for the errors of their subordinates, it does not follow that they must accept personal blame for these errors.

The historical struggle for ministerial responsibility was long and difficult, both in the United Kingdom and in Commonwealth countries. In the United Kingdom, the origin of this convention reaches back to the end of the 17th century, during the late Stuart monarchy, when Parliament made ministers responsible for any mismanagement as a way to assert their power without attacking the king. Members of Parliament used the established maxim that “the king can do no wrong” to preclude the monarch from shielding his ministers from parliamentary criticism. The prerogative of Parliament to reject the nomination of ministers was not fully established in the United Kingdom until 1714. The necessity for a standing government to maintain the confidence of Parliament (i.e., the collective responsibility of ministers) became a reality in 1841 when Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel formed a government without the support of Queen Victoria. The recognition of this principle in the United Kingdom did not, however, signify its extension to other countries of the British Empire. In Canada, for instance, the governor-general directly appointed colonial administrators without consulting the House of Commons up to the 1840s, when a parliamentary majority led by Robert Baldwin and Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine succeeded in establishing a constitutionally responsible government in the country.