Policy

CRI4033
Dr. Aidan O’Sullivan
C303
Mondays and Fridays @ 1pm
aidan.osullivan@bcu.ac.uk
Prime Ministers, Ministers and Civil Servants

• Best Sitcom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBtKm9HuFs4

• Yes, Minister (1980) Season 1, Episode 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdVFD1MuPrU&t=889s
The Executive
• Prime Minister

• Cabinet

• Legal authority - Technically

servants of The Crown

• Political authority - Majority

vote

• Parliamentary sovereignty
 The Prime Minister
• Chairs the Cabinet:

• Can appoint MPs who will head a government department

and shift them or dismiss them

• Sets cabinet meetings

• Controls Whitehall-Can abolish change or merge

departments

• Can advise on peerages and public appointments

• Consults with the civil service headed by a

permanent secretary

• Can consult special advisors (sometimes

controversial)
Current PM
• Theresa May

• Formerly Home Secretary

• Took over from David Cameron

• Called an election: Reduced majority

• Uncertain future
The Cabinet
• Selected MPs

• Cabinet Committees-Headed by cabinet members on certain specialist

topics

• Can enjoy public visibility and be able to form useful links with the
media (Essential for leaking)

• Can deal with a time-consuming number of issues under the media

glare
• Approves the policies laid before Parliament

• Can constrain the Prime Minister

• Can become powerful rivals of the PM

• The closeness or distance between the PM, the cabinet and/or the
Civil service varies
Selected Cabinet Members

• Amber Rudd (Home Secretary)-Home

Office

• Michael Fallon (Minister of Defence)-

Ministry of Defence

• David Lidington (Minister for Justice)-

Ministry of Justice
Current Cabinet Committees and Chairs
• The National Security Council (Theresa May)

• National Security Council (Nuclear Deterrence and Security) sub-Committee (Theresa May)

• National Security Council (Threats, Hazards, Resilience and Contingencies) sub-Committee

(Damian Green)

• National Security Council (Strategic Defence and Security Review Implementation)

subcommittee (Amber Rudd)

• Tackling Modern Slavery and People Trafficking (Theresa May)

• Immigration (Damian Green)

Parliament
• House of Commons: Elected MPs from Government and Opposition

• MPs from different parties do not necessarily have to vote according

to their leaders’ preferences

• The PM may hold a very small majority after an election i.e. Theresa
May in 2017

• House of Lords: Appointed and hereditary peers

The civil service
• Assists MPs who head a department

• Each department has a Permanent Secretary who answers to

ministers on behalf of civil servants

• Can have a degree of influence on departmental decisions despite not

officially heading it
Constraints on the Executive
• Some policy making devolved to parliaments and assemblies in
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

• Until Brexit, certain areas of policy and implications limited by the EU

• The European Convention of Human Rights as introduced through the

Human Rights Act 1998
A quick analysis of crime policies from the
2017 election
• Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (2017):

https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/publications/assessing-general-
election-manifestos

• Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat policies assessed.

• Prisons: All three manifestos promise prisons to become places of
rehabilitation. A longstanding policy of previous governments that has
failed.

• From 1995-2009 66% growth in English and Welsh prisons due to tougher
sentencing and breaking of non-custodial sentences. In 2015 rose to 85,626
prisoners

• Conservatives propose £1 billion in spending on new prisons

• Labour: End overcrowding

• Spending on policing is by far where the most spending is compared to
prisons, legal aid and probation (2015/2016: £8.39 billion: 56%)

• Does this spending on policing really cause a fall in crime?

• Disputed: Some visible presence might but the amount may not (Clack and Hough,
1984).

• (Bradford, 2011) 10% increase may led to a 3% decrease in property

offenses

• Often enough policing reflects a crisis in other areas of social services,

such as mental health
• Drugs: Liberal Democrats had the only manifesto to consider the
legalised and regulated selling of cannabis while decriminalising
possession of drugs for personal use

• Similar proposals to Portugal which saw a huge decrease in HIV and hepatitis,
spending on law enforcement and drug use below the European average

• In England and Wales drug-related deaths at highest level in 2016 as well as

disease transmission.

• Some police forces have effectively stopped pursuing cannabis users