Washminster

Washminster
Washminster

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Constitutional Handbook

The final version of the Cabinet Manual has now been published (a draft appeared last year). The Prime Minister writes in the introduction -

"The Cabinet Manual sets out the internal rules and procedures under which the Government operates. For the first time the conventions determining how the Government operates are transparently set out in one place. Codifying and publishing these sheds welcome light on how the Government interacts with the other parts of our democratic system."

The Cabinet Secretary writes "While the document primarily provides a guide to the operation of the Government itself, it also sets out – from the view of the Executive – the Government’s place in the UK’s Parliamentary democracy. It therefore includes chapters on how the Government relates to the Sovereign, Parliament and the independent judiciary, as well as the other democratic institutions within the UK and key international bodies."

As you can imagine from those comments - this document will be important for Constitutional Law students and lecturers (I've already downloaded a copy to my iPad!)

The Cabinet Manual (in PDF format)is available here.