Cabinet Committees provide a framework for collective consideration of and decisions on, major policy issues and issues of significant public interest. They ensure that issues that are of interest to more than one department are properly discussed and that the view of all relevant Ministers are considered.

The Committees meet to resolve disputes and make difficult decisions. Non-contentious issues can generally be agreed in correspondence.

The business of Cabinet and Cabinet Committees is mainly made up of:

• the co-ordination of particularly complex Government business, such as the legislative programme, constitutional issues and public expenditure;
  
  
• consideration of major issues of policy or issues likely to lead to significant public comment or criticism; and
  
  
• questions where there is an unresolved disagreement between departments

Cabinet Committees relieve the pressure on Cabinet itself by settling business in a smaller forum or at a lower level. Committees enable decisions to be fully considered by those Ministers most closely concerned in a way that ensures that Government as a whole can be expected to accept responsibility for them. Some Cabinet Committees have Sub-Committees. These tend to focus on a narrower range of issues than the full committee, taking forward work on key areas. Both Committees and Sub-Committees act by implied devolution of authority from the cabinet and their decisions therefore have the same formal status as decisions by the full Cabinet.

Business may also be carried forward through Miscellaneous Groups, normally set up to carry out a particular task, or through ad hoc meetings, which are generally informal groups that cannot make binding decisions.