- The term "Cabinet responsibility" means:
Cabinet collective responsibility, also known as collective ministerial responsibility or Cabinet responsibility, is a constitutional convention in Parliamentary systems that members of the cabinet must publicly support all governmental decisions made in Cabinet, even if they do not privately agree with them. This support includes voting for the government in the legislature. Some Communist political parties apply a similar convention of democratic centralism to their central committee.
If a member of the Cabinet wishes to openly object to a Cabinet decision then they are obliged to resign from their position in the Cabinet and thus give up being a minister.
Cabinet collective responsibility 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 be dissolved and a general election will be called. Cabinet collective responsibility is not the same as individual ministerial responsibility, which states that ministers are responsible for the running of their departments, and therefore culpable for the departments' mistakes.
2 Lib' Dem' junior ministers resigned there posts in 2010 rather than support the government policy increasing university tuition fees, which ran counter to a key Lib' Dem' manifesto pledge.
- Sources: https://www.tutor2u.net/politics/reference/collective-cabinet-responsibility, https://quizlet.com/1997140/cabinet-responsibilities-flash-cards/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_collective_responsibility, https://www.britannica.com/topic/cabinet-government, https://quizlet.com/1997140/cabinet-responsibilities-flash-cards/, https://www.tutor2u.net/politics/reference/collective-cabinet-responsibility and https://www.britannica.com/topic/cabinet-government