Department for Business and Trade written question – answered am ar 27 Chwefror 2024.
Michael Shanks
Shadow Minister (Scotland)
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Written Statement of 22 February 2024 on Post Office Update, UIN HCWS283, what discussions she has had with the Scottish Government on legislation to overturn the wrongful convictions of postmasters.
Kevin Hollinrake
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK Government has engaged regularly with the Scottish Government concerning the legislation to overturn the wrongful convictions of postmasters, including at the Inter-Ministerial Group for Justice on 25 January and a regular official-level working group. I discussed the UK Government's approach to overturning convictions with the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Justice on 22 February. The UK Government will continue to work closely with the Scottish Government to enable them to progress their own approach for overturning convictions in their legal jurisdiction.
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
