ABSTRACT
WHEN we come to the methods by which policy is co-ordinated we are faced with conditions which differ from those of the previous part of the present enquiry. While the articulation and internal organization of government departments individually is, with certain obvious exceptions, a subject upon which it is thought possible for the general public to be kept informed, the methods by which the activities of these departments are coordinated are matters reserved for ofU391< knowledge only. Or, at least, this is the case except in very broad outline. What this amounts to is that no public reference is made to either of the principal methods of co-ordination: that is to say to Cabinet committees at the ministerial level, and interdepartmental committees at the ?6U39al level, whether or not the latter parallel a ministerial committee in the same U5<d. These inhibitions are basically constitutional. It is held that the collective responsibility of the Cabinet would be infringed if the mechanism through which it arrived at its decisions were revealed, and that the nomenclature and membership of ofU391< committees should be kept secret for the same reasons as apply to the other methods by which ministers are advised, and the nature of the advice that they receive. It is, therefore, only possible here to deal with this subject in a very general way.
