New England Online > Government & Politics > The Executive
The Executive
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The Executive arm of the New England government is the branch responsible for the day-to-day administration of the various ministries and agencies. The executive consists of the civil service, crown statutory agencies and to a lesser extent the government owned crown corporations. The primary body of the executive is the Executive Council, which was established in Article III of the Constitution of New England. However, the principal power of the branch lies with the Cabinet.
The executive is led by the First Minister, who is the person appointed by the King and who is able to gather a majority on the floor of the House of Assembly. The First Minister is the head of government, and along with his ministers, is the person who leads the government and coordinates policy and operations of government through the Cabinet and civil service.
Structure
Executive Council - The Executive Council is the body of the New England government legally charged with the task of advising the monarch in the function of governing the country. The council is comprised of all executive ministers, associate ministers, and parliamentary secretaries ever appointed by the King, although only members of the incumbent government regularly attend it's meetings.
First Minister - The head of the government in New England, the First Minister is appointed by the King from the leadership of the party that can command a majority in the House of Assembly. First Ministers are the most important political officers in the country and carry out the day to day business of government for the King. The First Minister acts as the face of the government and is ultimately responsible for it's fate. The current First Minister is the Rt. Hon. Matthew Jones.
Cabinet - The most senior ministers in the government are also members of the cabinet, which is the body responsible for the major functional and policy decisions of the government. The current cabinet has been in office since March 2052, and consists of sixteen members who are each charged with the management of a portfolio or ministry.
Ministries - All members of the cabinet are given the title of Minister of State, and each hold a different portfolio of government duties, e.g. Minister of State for Conservation. All of New England's executive ministries are led by a minister, who is assisted by an apolitical Permanent Secretary. Each ministry also has a statutory board to assist in the direction of policy and general adminsitration. The boards are typically made up of the Minister, the Permanent Secretary, Deputy Secretary, the Crown Advocate and any other key stakeholders involved in the department such as the heads of the crown statutory agencies.
Agencies - At arms length to ministerial control stand a number of departmental and independent agencies. Departmental agencies are known as executive agencies and are part of a government department. However, they are treated as managerially and budgetarily separate in order to carry out some particular executive functions. Those that are independent of ministerial control are known as crown statutory agencies, which are created by an Act of Parliament and are run a by a board appointed by the parliament. All key agencies in the government that are required to be impartial or independent are usually set up as crown statutory agencies.
Advocates - The leading government spokesmen and advisors on matters relating to their area of appointment, Crown Advocates represent a variety of different areas where the government requires permanent and regular advice on specialist matters. Crown Advocates are civil servants and tend to be political appointments that change as governments come to office. They are only advisors and only help create policy, not direct its implementation. The positions were created by Jacob Meyer in 2016 to de-politicise the civil service while still allowing for a body of trusted advisors that could work with ministers and civil servants.
SH Smith House
For more, see SH Smith House.
Like the White House or 10 Downing Street, SH Smith House is the day-to-day office of the First Minister and the Cabinet of New England. The building includes offices for senior members of the Ministry of the First Minister and Cabinet and their support staff. Unlike those two famous buildings, Smith House is not the official residence of the First Minister, who instead resides in Lindsay House next door.
Built in the mid twentith century as a residential college for women attending the Armidale Teachers College, the building was privatly owned at the independence and became the hub of the United Militia after the capture of the Armidale. The building became the official home of the Cabinet in 2013.
