Ministerial ranking

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The ministerial ranking, Cabinet ranking, order of precedence in Cabinet or order of precedence of ministers is the "pecking order"[1] or relative importance[2] of senior ministers in the UK government.

Use[]

Lord Hennessy is probably the academic who has written in the most detail about the ministerial ranking, in his 2000 book The Prime Minister: The Office And Its Holders Since 1945.

The ministerial ranking is said by Peter Hennessy to be decided by the Prime Minister alone[1] and reportedly by the Cabinet Office Precedent Book as being wholly decided by the Prime Minister, "guided partly by tradition and partly by political and personal considerations".[2] In his autobiography David Cameron said that it "...combines seniority of post and the length of time as a cabinet minister to determine the rank of everyone present".[3]

The Cabinet Manual states that when the Prime Minister is unable to attend Cabinet, or the chair and any deputy chair of a Cabinet committee are absent, the next most senior minister in the ministerial ranking should take the chair.[4]

One constitutional law academic, Rodney Brazier, has suggested that if the Prime Minister were to die suddenly, the monarch could ask the Deputy Prime Minister, or if there was no such person available, the next most senior MP in the ministerial ranking to take temporary charge of the government.[5]

Importance[]

Hennessy says that it "...matters more than one thinks in establishing the power of a Prime Minister in relation to his most senior colleagues"[1] and Harold Wilson has been noted to be one Prime Minister to take the ranking seriously.[2] It has been noted that it was through the ministerial ranking rather than being First Secretary that George Brown was able to exercise "...deputising duties".[2] It has also been said that, upon his 1995 appointment as Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary, Michael Heseltine also insisted that he became number two on the ministerial ranking.[6]

However, David Cameron has stated that it was "something we had never bothered with"[3] and Harold Macmillan has reportedly said that he would have preferred an order based on the traditional dignity of offices, deeming it "all rather nonsense".[2]

Additionally, in April 2020, when Boris Johnson was moved into intensive care with COVID-19, a government press released stated that he had asked First Secretary of State Dominic Raab "to deputise for him where necessary",[7] but the ministerial ranking on the parliament.uk website around the time showed Rishi Sunak technically ranking above Raab.[8]

Current ministerial ranking[]

The current ministerial ranking, as of 7 January 2022, is as follows:[9][10][11]

Number Minister Office
Cabinet ministers
1 The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP
2 The Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP
3 The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP Chancellor of the Exchequer
4 The Rt Hon Liz Truss MP
5 The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP Secretary of State for the Home Department
6 The Rt Hon Ben Wallace MP Secretary of State for Defence
7 The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
8 The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
9 The Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP
10 The Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
11 The Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP President for COP26
Minister of State at the Cabinet Office
12 The Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP Secretary of State for International Trade
13 The Rt Hon Dr Thérèse Coffey MP Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
14 The Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi MP Secretary of State for Education
15 The Rt Hon George Eustice MP Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
16 The Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP Secretary of State for Transport
17 The Rt Hon Brandon Lewis CBE MP Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
18 The Rt Hon Alister Jack DL MP Secretary of State for Scotland
19 The Rt Hon Simon Hart MP Secretary of State for Wales
20 The Rt Hon The Baroness Evans of Bowes Park MBE PC
21 The Rt Hon Nadine Dorries CBE MP Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
22 The Rt Hon Oliver Dowden MP
  • Minister without Portfolio
  • Chair of the Conservative Party
Non-cabinet ministers who attend cabinet meetings
23 The Rt Hon Mark Spencer MP
24 The Rt Hon Simon Clarke MP Chief Secretary to the Treasury
25 The Rt Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP
26 The Rt Hon Suella Braverman QC MP Attorney General for England and Wales
Advocate General for Northern Ireland
27 The Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP Minister of State for Crime and Policing
28 The Rt Hon Nigel Adams MP Minister of State without Portfolio
29 The Rt Hon Michelle Donelan MP Minister of State for Universities

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Hennessy, Peter (2000). The Prime Minister: The Office and its Holders Since 1945. Penguin Group. p. 63. ISBN 0713993405.
  2. ^ a b c d e Thornton, Stephen; Kirkup, Jonathan (14 June 2021). "From Rab to Raab: The Construction of the Office of First Secretary of State". Parliamentary Affairs. 2021:0: 11. doi:10.1093/pa/gsab038.
  3. ^ a b Cameron, David (2019). For the Record. William Collins. p. 656. ISBN 9780008239305.
  4. ^ The Cabinet Manual 2011, p. 35.
  5. ^ Brazier, Rodney (2020). Choosing a Prime Minister: the Transfer of Power in Britain. Oxford University Press. p. 87. ISBN 9780198859291.
  6. ^ Thornton, Stephen; Kirkup, Jonathan (14 June 2021). "From Rab to Raab: The Construction of the Office of First Secretary of State". Parliamentary Affairs. 2021:0: 13. doi:10.1093/pa/gsab038.
  7. ^ "Statement from Downing Street: 6 April 2020". GOV.UK. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  8. ^ "Her Majesty's Government: The Cabinet". 21 April 2020. Archived from the original on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  9. ^ "Ministers". gov.uk. Retrieved 3 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ "Her Majesty's Government: The Cabinet". parliament.uk. Retrieved 9 August 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ "FOI2021 04049 Response submisison.docx". www.whatdotheyknow.com. 23 February 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

See also[]

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