ANNEX C – CONDUCT OF CABINET AND CABINET COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Notification of agendas
1. Once the forward program and agendas are approved by the Cabinet Secretary, Cabinet Division issues to ministers:
- an agenda for each meeting, showing the business to be considered, the ministers responsible for the items and any ministers or parliamentary secretaries to be co‐opted
- any draft minutes for endorsement based on matters previously considered by a Cabinet Committee.
Expectation of in-person attendance
2. Ministers are expected to attend Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings in person. Remote attendance by telephone or video is not permitted, other than in exceptional circumstances.
Notification of non‐attendance – delay or absence
3. If a minister does not expect to be available to attend a meeting of the Cabinet or a Cabinet Committee, that minister should advise the Cabinet Secretary in writing prior to the meeting outlining the reasons for the absence.
Co‐option
4. Cabinet Division provides advice to the Cabinet Secretary on co‐option arrangements for each meeting.
5. Ministers shown on agendas as being co‐opted for an item of business attend the Cabinet or Cabinet Committee meeting for the discussion of that item. Those ministers participate fully in the discussion of that item.
6. Non‐Cabinet ministers with a portfolio interest in an item listed for a Cabinet or Cabinet Committee meeting (and who have not been co‐opted on the agenda) may seek to be co‐opted for the discussion by having the relevant senior portfolio Cabinet minister make a request in writing to the Cabinet Secretary.
Declaring interests
7. Ministers and assistant ministers attending Cabinet or Cabinet Committee meetings must, in relation to the matters under discussion, declare any private interests, actual or perceived and pecuniary or non‐pecuniary, held by them, or by members of their immediate family of which they are aware, which give rise to, or are likely to give rise to, a conflict with their public duties.
8. It is then open to the Chair of the meeting to excuse a minister from the discussion or to agree expressly to his or her taking part.
9. Any such declarations will be recorded by the Cabinet note takers.
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