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According to the recently published Cabinet Manual, ministers don’t have to privately agree in the Cabinet on everything. However, outside the Cabinet (in any forum, including before Parliament), they must not reveal any personal disagreement.
This fact is confirmed by section 20.2 of the Manual which states:
All members have not only full liberty but a clear duty at meetings of the Cabinet to speak in support of or against any proposal before the Cabinet.
If consensus of all Ministers cannot be reached initially it may be necessary for further discussions to take place until either full agreement is reached on the substance of the matter or else the dissentient(s) agree to accept and support the decision of the Cabinet as a whole, even though they may continue to be strongly opposed to it personally.
As a result, a minister can say whatever he or she wishes in the Cabinet, even as a vehement opponent of proposals within the Cabinet.
Following such individual opposition, however, a minister may still choose to go along with the consensus reached by the Cabinet.
In this case, when Cabinet members discuss the relevant policy position publicly or in the Parliament, no opposing Cabinet member is permitted to reveal or hint at any disunity within the Cabinet.
The requirement for such secrecy is cemented in the oath given by each Cabinet minister in accordance with the Cabinet Manual that he or she “will not directly or indirectly reveal such matters as shall be debated in the Cabinet.”
The matter is therefore not trivial and must be taken seriously.
See also
Superseding all of this, of course, is Cayman constitution, the country’s highest governance document.
Under the constitution, ministers must be collectively responsible to the Parliament with respect to any matter for which a minister is responsible under the constitution.
The Cabinet is also collectively responsible to the Parliament under the constitution for relevant policies and their implementation.
All indicators therefore point to the fact that there is no restriction on a minister to disagree on any proposal within the Cabinet. He or she just can’t express such disagreement publicly or before Parliament.
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