Part of Oral Answers to Questions — International Development – in the House of Commons am 11:30 am ar 13 Mai 2009.
Ivan Lewis
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development
11:30,
13 Mai 2009
Of course, it is not for me to arrange my right hon. Friend's travel itinerary. However, my serious response is that he recently met the Finance Minister, in whom we have a lot of confidence, and he has also met the Prime Minister in the past. My noble Friend Lord Malloch-Brown, the Minister for Africa, was at the inauguration of the new President of South Africa and recently met Morgan Tsvangirai and the new Foreign Minister of Zimbabwe. There is constant engagement and dialogue with the Government of Zimbabwe. We are clear about the support that we stand ready to provide and we have announced the resources that I mentioned in my earlier response. However, there can be no slacking in the message about the importance of political and economic as well as human rights reform. We remain concerned that, for example, political prisoners have recently been returned to prison. In those circumstances, we need to send strong messages about the pace of reform.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.