Cabinet Office

This article is about the Cabinet Office in the United Kingdom. For other Cabinet Offices, see Cabinet Office (disambiguation).

Cabinet Office
Welsh: Swyddfa'r Cabinet

Cabinet Office, Whitehall, London
Department overview
Formed	December 1916
Preceding Department	Committee of Imperial Defence
Jurisdiction	United Kingdom
Headquarters	70 Whitehall, London, England
Employees	1,668 FTE
Annual budget	£2.1 billion (current) & £400 million (capital) for 2011–12
Ministers responsible	Rt Hon. Boris Johnson MP, Prime Minister Rt Hon. Michael Gove MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Department executives	Sir Mark Sedwill KCMG, Cabinet Secretary Sir John Manzoni KCB, Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary
Child agencies	Crown Commercial Service Government Equalities Office
Website	Cabinet Office

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The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objectives via other departments. It currently has just over 2,000 staff, most of whom work in Whitehall. Staff working in the Prime Minister's Office are part of the Cabinet Office.

Responsibilities

The Cabinet Office's core functions are:

• Supporting the Prime Minister to define and deliver the Government's objectives, implement political and constitutional reform, and drive forward from the centre particular cross-departmental priority issues such as public service improvement, social exclusion and the third sector;
• Supporting the Cabinet – to drive the coherence, quality and delivery of policy and operations across departments; and
• Strengthening the civil service – to ensure the civil service is organised effectively and efficiently and has the capability in terms of skills, values and leadership to deliver the Government's objectives, including ensuring value for money to the taxpayer. This also includes working with the Treasury to drive efficiency and reform across the public sector.

Other functions include oversight of the Crown Commercial Service and the accreditation of Social Impact Contractors.

The Cabinet Office has responsibility for the following at a UK national level:

• political and constitutional reform
• the Home Civil Service
• the Boundary Commissions
• the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
• the Government Commercial Function and the Government Commercial Organisation.

Devolved nations

Its main counterparts in the devolved nations are as follows:

Scotland

• Office of the First Minister (supporting the Scottish Government cabinet)

Northern Ireland

• Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister (co-ordinating the Northern Ireland Executive)
• Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (social enterprise)
• Department of Finance and Personnel (the Northern Ireland Civil Service)
• Department for Social Development (civil society)

Wales

History

The department was formed in December 1916 from the secretariat of the Committee of Imperial Defence under Sir Maurice Hankey, the first Cabinet Secretary.

Traditionally the most important part of the Cabinet Office's role was facilitating collective decision-making by the Cabinet, through running and supporting Cabinet-level committees. This is still its principal role, but since the absorption of some of the functions of the Civil Service Department in 1981 the Cabinet Office has also helped to ensure that a wide range of Ministerial priorities are taken forward across Whitehall.

It also contains miscellaneous units that do not sit well in other departments. For example:

• The Historical Section was founded in 1906 as part of the Committee for Imperial Defence and is concerned with Official Histories.
• The Joint Intelligence Committee was founded in 1936 and transferred to the department in 1957. It deals with intelligence assessments and directing the national intelligence organisations of the UK.
• The Ceremonial Branch was founded in 1937 and transferred to the department in 1981. It was originally concerned with all ceremonial functions of state, but today it handles honours and appointments.

In modern times the Cabinet Office often takes on responsibility for areas of policy which are the priority of the Government of the time. The units that administer these areas migrate in and out of the Cabinet Office as government priorities (and governments) change.

Ministers

The Cabinet Office Ministers are as follows:

Minister	Rank	Portfolio
The Rt Hon. Boris Johnson MP	Prime Minister First Lord of the Treasury Minister for the Civil Service Minister for the Union	Head of government; future relationship negotiations with the European Union
The Rt Hon. Michael Gove MP	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Minister for the Cabinet Office	Overall responsibility for the department; the Civil Service; co-chairing the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee; developing and implementing government business and policy; chairing and deputy chairing Cabinet committees and implementation taskforces; devolution consequences and domestic implementation of Brexit; the Constitution; the Union
The Rt Hon. The Baroness Evans of Bowes Park	Leader of the House of Lords	Organising government business in the House of Lords.
Amanda Milling MP	Minister without Portfolio	Supporting the Cabinet Office. Leading work of Cabinet Office Brexit preparedness, and attends Cabinet.
The Rt Hon. Jacob Rees-Mogg MP	Leader of the House of Commons	Organising government business in the House of Commons; working closely with the government’s Chief Whip.
Honorary Commander The Rt Hon. Penny Mordaunt MP	Paymaster General	Co-chairing the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee;
Chloe Smith MP	Minister of State for the Constitution and Devolution	Constitutional policy and democracy; propriety, ethics and transparency; knowledge management; UK Statistics Authority; Cabinet Office parliamentary business; Cabinet Office domestic (including Cabinet Office HR, finance and security); government communications; fraud, error, debt and grants; public bodies reform
The Rt Hon. The Lord Agnew of Oulton	Minister of State	TBA
The Rt Hon. The Lord True	Minister of State	Political and Constitutional Reforms
Julia Lopez MP	Parliamentary Secretary, Minister for Implementation	Supporting the Minister for the Cabinet Office on cross-government delivery and implementation; controls (commercial, digital, property); commercial model; cyber and resilience; Civil Service HR and Shared Services; fraud, error, debt and grants; Geospatial Commission; Government Digital Service; Government Security Group; Infrastructure and Projects Authority; Government Property; Government Commercial Function; public bodies and appointments policy
Johnny Mercer MP	Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State	Minister for Defence People and Veterans

The Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service is Sir Mark Sedwill; the Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of the Home Civil Service is Sir John Manzoni; the Chief Negotiator of Task Force Europe is the Prime Minister's Europe Adviser, David Frost.

The Cabinet Office also supports the work of:

• the Leader of the House of Commons;
• the Leader of the House of Lords; and
• the Whips Office.

Committees

Main article: United Kingdom cabinet committee

Cabinet committees have two key purposes:

• To relieve the burden on the Cabinet by dealing with business that does not need to be discussed at full Cabinet. Appeals to the Cabinet should be infrequent, and Ministers chairing Cabinet Committees should exercise discretion in advising the Prime Minister whether to allow them.
• To support the principle of collective responsibility by ensuring that, even though a question may never reach the Cabinet itself, it will be fully considered. In this way, the final judgement is sufficiently authoritative that Government as a whole can be expected to accept responsibility for it. In this sense, Cabinet Committee decisions have the same authority as Cabinet decisions.

Buildings

The entrance to the Cabinet Office.

The main building of the Cabinet Office is at 70 Whitehall, adjacent to Downing Street. The building connects three historically distinct properties, as well as the remains of Henry VIII's 1530 tennis courts, part of the Palace of Whitehall, which can be seen within the building. The Whitehall frontage was designed by Sir John Soane and completed by Sir Charles Barry between 1845 and 1847 as the Treasury Buildings. Immediately to the west Dorset House (1700) connects the front of the building to William Kent's Treasury (1733–36), which faces out onto Horse Guards Parade. The latter is built over the site of the Cockpit, used for cock fighting in the Tudor period, and subsequently as a theatre. In the early 1960s the buildings were restored and many of the Tudor remains were exposed and repaired. Significant renovations between 2010 and 2016 converted many of the floors to open plan and created new office space. The Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms are located on this site.

The department occupies other buildings in Whitehall and the surrounding area, including part of 1 Horse Guards, as well as sites in other parts of the country.

See also

• British Civil Service
• United Kingdom budget
• Prime Minister's Strategy Unit
• Social Exclusion Task Force
• Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms
• Public Sector Internal Identity Federation

External links

• Official website
• Cabinet Office official Twitter feed