The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

• responsibility for the machinery of Government (including the division of

departmental responsibilities and the Cabinet Committee structure); and

• the organisation and recording of Cabinet meetings.

19.  Particularly in relation to the latter two responsibilities, the Cabinet Secretary has a

dual responsibility to the Prime Minister and to Cabinet collectively, and to both former

and future governments.

20.  In 2009, three former Cabinet Secretaries3 told the House of Lords Select

Committee on the Constitution:

“… each of us, as Secretary of the Cabinet, has been constantly conscious of

his responsibility to the Cabinet collectively and of the need to have regard to the

needs and responsibilities of the other members of the Cabinet (and indeed of other

Ministers) as well of those of the Prime Minister. That has coloured our relationships

with Number 10 as well as those with other Ministers and their departments.”4

21.  During Sir Andrew Turnbull’s tenure, the Cabinet Secretary was Head of the Home

Civil Service, with leadership of the Civil Service as a whole. This role placed on the

Cabinet Secretary a duty of care for the well-being of civil servants and the responsibility

to be a fair employer.

22.  The Cabinet Secretary has line management responsibility for departmental

Permanent Secretaries across Whitehall.

23.  The first edition of The Cabinet Manual, published in October 2011, ascribes the

following specific responsibilities to the Cabinet Secretary:

• “The Cabinet Secretary is head of the Cabinet Secretariat.”5

• “The Cabinet Secretary, unless unavoidably absent, attends all meetings of

Cabinet and is responsible for the smooth running of Cabinet meetings and for

preparing records of its discussions and decisions.”6

• “Permanent Secretaries are responsible to the Cabinet Secretary or the Head

of the Civil Service for the effective day-to-day management of the relevant

department, or the particular issues for which they are responsible …”7

3  Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, Lord Butler of Brockwell and Lord Wilson of Dinton.

4  Fourth Report from the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution, Session 2009-10,

The Cabinet Office and the Centre of Government, HL Paper 30.

5  Cabinet Office, The Cabinet Manual, October 2011, page 36.

6  Cabinet Office, The Cabinet Manual, October 2011, page 36.

7  Cabinet Office, The Cabinet Manual, October 2011, page 58.

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