Change of meeting day

When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, the regular day the Cabinet meets was changed from Thursday to Tuesday. While the Cabinet had met on a Thursday since 1963, it had met on other days before.

Between 1955 and 1963, Cabinet meetings were held on both Tuesdays and Thursdays. From 1945 to 1955, they were held on Mondays and Thursdays, and before the Second World War, they were usually held on Wednesdays.

Mr Brown chose to move the meetings to Tuesday because Parliament does not meet until the afternoon that day, so members would not have to leave longer meetings early because of Commons engagements.

Powers of Cabinet

The Cabinet has no legal powers, they are held by Secretaries of State. But it has collective responsibility to Parliament so all members are bound to support Cabinet decisions even if they were not present.

Cabinet Committees and Cabinet Secretariat

Much of the work of Cabinet is delegated to Committees.

The Prime Minister decides who sits on the Committees and what they are responsible for. Some of the Committees exist for short periods to deal with a particular issue.

Since 1992 the membership of Cabinet Committees has been published. Decisions taken in Committee have full Cabinet authority and may not be brought to full Cabinet.

The Secretariat calls meetings, circulates papers, prepares the agenda (under the PM’s direction), writes and circulates the conclusions, and keeps them.

Text 2 ‘10 Downing Street’

History of the Building

Behind the quiet façade of this famous black door lie many secrets. Number 10 has been the setting for violent riots, passionate protest and surprising activities. It has been the nerve centre of the British Government through two World Wars. Pioneering policies have been developed inside its walls and world-changing meetings have been chaired by Britain’s greatest leaders.

It is used as a busy office and workplace for the Prime Minister and the staff employed to support him in his role. Not least it is also home to the PM and his family.

Downing Street began its association with the office of the Prime Minister in 1730. That the house is still being used today by Gordon Brown is down to the refusal of first-ever PM Robert Walpole to accept the house as a personal gift. Instead he insisted it be used by future “First Lords of the Treasury”.

During its history the house has undergone major development to be turned into a grand residence fit for the most powerful politician in the country.

Number 10 Downing Street has never been busier than it is today. It is an office for the Prime Minister, a meeting place for the Cabinet, a venue for state events and a home for the Prime Minister’s family.

While in office, prime ministers traditionally live with their families in Downing Street in the private flat on the second floor.

‘Living above the shop’, as Margaret Thatcher described it, has sometimes made it difficult for prime ministers to separate family life and work, but it does allow him or her to keep fully in touch with events as they develop.

Fortunately, prime ministers no longer have to furnish the whole house themselves. Until the twentieth century, prime ministers who lived in Downing Street used to bring their own households with them - bedding, crockery and furniture. They would arrange their possessions in the state rooms on arrival and move them out when they left office.

Prime ministers today have an opportunity to select the art that hangs on the walls of Number 10. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries prime ministers brought their own paintings to display in the house.

Ramsay MacDonald was the first prime minister not to have a personal art collection and began the convention of borrowing from national collections to make the prime minister’s residence into a showcase for traditional and modern British art and craftsmanship.