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Why Are Cabinet Meetings Kept Secret, And How Does The Prime Minister Appoint New Ministers To The Cabinet? What Happens When A Prime Minister Dies?

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Mark Henderson Profile
Mark Henderson answered
The UK government's Cabinet meetings are kept secret to protect the government from any leak of information which may harm their political authority or Britain's national security.

The Prime Minister heads the cabinet and dictates the political agenda of the Cabinet discussions. The government is expected to communicate its decisions to Parliament and the Public after they have been taken in the Cabinet meetings. Cabinet meetings are held weekly.

The Prime Minister alone has the power to appoint and dismiss any Cabinet member and, to achieve this, the Prime Minister advises the monarch to dismiss the minister - although a minister is usually also given the option to resign. The Prime Minister can also "reshuffle" the cabinet to switch the posts of ministers within the Cabinet.

The Cabinet is governed by two conventions: Cabinet collective responsibility and individual ministerial responsibility. The effect of this is that, if a Cabinet minister cannot accept a decision made by The Cabinet, then he or she must resign. If a vote of no confidence is passed in Parliament, then every Cabinet minister is expected to resign from the executive.
Should a Prime Minister die in office then the deputy Prime Minister would take over for the remainder of the term, while the ruling party would start the search for a replacement candidate to run in the next general election. For example, if David Cameron were to die today, then Nick Clegg, the deputy PM, would became Prime Minister.
hina Profile
hina answered
All the proceedings of the cabinet meetings are kept secret and the differences within the cabinet are not let known to the people. The differences, if leaked out can possibly be exploited by the opposition. Leakage in the policy decisions. Especially those relating to the taxation policy may prove harmful from national point of view.

All the members of the cabinet stand on equal footing; the prime minister however performs pivotal role in the functioning of the ministry. He coordinates the work of different departments. All the responsibilities are to be performed by prime minister. He is the one who has authority to preside over cabinet meetings; he alone prepares the list of the persons to be included in the cabinet. He has the authority to remove any minister and family to undertake an overall supervision of administrative departments, is the responsibility of the prime minister.

In case of resignation of the prime minister cabinet alone can not work alone as an army can not fight itself without any leader, in such case the whole cabinet has to resign. In short, the prime minister is central to its formation, central to its life and central to its death and later new elections are conducted for the selection of new prime minister.

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