Cabinet collective responsibility

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See separate article for the meaning of the generic term Collective Responsibility

Cabinet collective responsibility is constitutional convention in the states that use the Westminster System. It means that members of the Cabinet must publicly support all governmental decisions made in Cabinet, even if they do not privately agree with them.

It is related to the fact that if a vote of no confidence is passed in parliament, the government is responsible collectively and thus the entire government resigns. The consequence will be that a new government will be formed, or parliament will dissolve and a general election will be called. Cabinet collective responsibility is not the same as individual ministerial responsibility, which states ministers are responsible and therefore culpable for the running of their departments.

On occasion, this principle has been suspended, most notably in the 1930s when in Britain the National Government allowed its Liberal members to oppose the introduction of protective tariffs and again in the 1970s, when Harold Wilson allowed Cabinet members to campaign both for and against the referendum on whether the UK should remain in the EEC. In 2003, Tony Blair allowed Clare Short to stay in the cabinet, despite her public opposition to the 2003 Iraq War. However, she later resigned.

In Canada the cabinet are on rare occasion allowed to freely vote their conscience and to oppose the government without consequence, as occurred with the vote on capital punishment under Brian Mulroney. These events are rare and are never on matters of confidence. The most prominent Canadian cabinet minister to resign because he could not vote with the cabinet was John Napier Turner who refused to support wage and price controls. In Canada party discipline is much tighter than in other Westminster-system countries: it is very rare for any MP to vote counter to the party leadership.

Collective responsibility may be circumvented by appointing Ministers Outside of Cabinet. This approach is used in New Zealand where, as of 2005, Winston Peters and Peter Dunne are Ministers Outside of Cabinet despite their parties not being considered part of a coalition. The arrangement is that collective responsibility will only apply with respect to their portfolio areas. As Peters has been appointed Foreign Minister, constitutionally speaking this is a quite unusual arrangement which has provoked wide ranging local and international criticism.

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