Running a rigorous Cabinet paper process

What’s the issue?

Any product created by a policy professional needs a good narrative – but it’s especially important for a Cabinet paper. A Cabinet paper has to be persuasive, because it’s usually seeking Cabinet Ministers’ decision on a proposal. The work to get Cabinet Ministers to agree starts long before Cabinet meets. Cabinet papers are ‘owned’ by Ministers but prepared by officials. To get a paper all the way to the Cabinet table, and get different Ministers’ agreement, a policy professional needs to get a lot of ducks in a row.

Why does it matter?

Cabinet is the engine room of the Government. It takes collective decisions on behalf of the Government, but that’s far from straightforward. This is partly because Cabinet Ministers often have different views on an issue, particularly in a multi-party coalition. What will seem a good idea from the perspective of one Minister’s portfolio might be trickier from another. It’s also because individual Cabinet Ministers have to be across so many issues that they will inevitably understand some in more depth than others.

What’s the solution?

The Cabinet manual sets out a whole process for the development of a Cabinet paper, designed to get everyone on board as far as possible.

Whatever the proposal intended for the Cabinet paper, the agency responsible for drafting the paper should test it early with the key people involved – other government agencies, and sometimes the people in the community affected by the proposal. These agencies and people may be able to spot problems or opportunities the policy professional can’t.

Then, the agency responsible drafts the Cabinet paper and sends the draft to other agencies to seek their feedback more formally. This is called ‘agency consultation’, and if there are any fishhooks that haven’t been sorted, this process should reveal them. Ideally, agencies will reach agreement on the proposal in the Cabinet paper, making Cabinet’s job easier – but if agencies can’t agree, each of them will advise their own Ministers of their positions.

After agency consultation, the draft Cabinet paper is tested with Ministers in a step called ‘Ministerial consultation’. This means the agency responsible sends the draft to their Minister’s office, then the office sends it on to other Ministers’ offices for their feedback. If policy professionals have done their job well, the proposal in the Cabinet paper will by now look pretty good, the agencies involved will be OK with it, and the Ministers being consulted will know what’s coming. Ministers’ offices might still give feedback at this stage, but any last-minute changes will hopefully be minor. Once finalised, it’s time to lodge the paper with Cabinet Office, so it appears on the next Cabinet agenda.

If all these steps are done well, the Cabinet paper will do its job and be agreed easily at the Cabinet table.