What good looks like in a Cabinet paper
What’s the issue?
Cabinet is the engine room of the Government, taking major decisions on the Government’s behalf. Cabinet papers are important because they’re the vehicles for getting those decisions. Like anything a policy professional produces, a Cabinet paper needs to be well-written, with a clear narrative and:
- a maximum of ten pages (although this rule is frequently bent)
- plain language
- acronyms spelt out in full
- use of graphs and tables where it increases readability
- recommendations that tell the whole story, without being too lengthy.
But in addition to being well-written, a Cabinet paper needs to be persuasive. Its job is getting decision makers to agree.
Why does it matter?
Unsurprisingly, Cabinet Ministers take the quality of Cabinet papers seriously. Unlike a briefing to a Minister, which is ‘owned’ by the agency that produces it, a Cabinet paper is ‘owned’ by the Minister. It contains the Minister’s proposal and is written in the Minister’s voice, using first-person phrases like ‘I propose’.
This ups the ante. A Cabinet paper not only seeks decisions. It also, but represents the professionalism of the Minister to their colleagues – and maybe to the public, if the Cabinet paper is released under the Official Information Act (proactively or on request).
What’s the solution?
Fortunately, there’s plenty of guidance if you’re writing a Cabinet paper, as well as a template with instructions. It also helps to take advice from people with experience writing Cabinet papers and navigating some of the more subtle issues they can involve. We have a few tips that you might find useful.
- Make sure the paper you’re writing actually needs to go to Cabinet. Cabinet should be reserved for only important decisions, or sometimes updates – but sometimes more junior Ministers want to take less important issues to Cabinet, to build their careers. If this happens, Cabinet Office can help you tactfully resolve the situation.
- Be aware that because the Minister owns the paper, they might take a proposal to Cabinet that your analysis shows isn’t a good idea. In that situation, the policy professional strikes a delicate balance writing the Cabinet paper in a way that is true to their analysis but still persuasive. Asking an experienced colleague, or looking at proactively released Cabinet papers, can help you choose your language.
- Sometimes, it’s appropriate for Ministers to give an oral update to Cabinet, where an issue is urgent, sensitive, significant, or relates to a Government priority, and doesn’t require a decision. Oral updates might be a bit less work for the policy professional, but they shouldn’t be seen as an easy way through. They still require the policy professional to generate high quality content, they still have to be lodged with Cabinet Office, and they will be reflected in a Cabinet minute, the same way as a Cabinet paper.
- Think carefully how you use the recommendations in a Cabinet paper to set up the foundations for any future work. For example, should you seek agreement that your Minister will come back with another Cabinet paper later, to progress the work further? Should you seek delegated power for your Minister, or a group of Ministers, to take follow-up decisions on the work – so the Minister doesn’t need to go back to Cabinet again?
Last but not least, it’s helpful to remember that a Cabinet paper itself isn’t the be all and end all. When your Minister takes their paper to Cabinet, you will likely provide them with an aide memoire explaining the paper, and with talking points attached. Together, these different products will help your Minister tell a great story, persuade their colleagues, and get the decisions they need.