Reports due to Cabinet committees

Introduction

Cabinet and Cabinet committees often request reports on particular issues from Ministers and departments. Ministers expect that such reports will be submitted to Cabinet and Cabinet committees on time. It is the responsibility of departments and Ministers' offices to ensure that this happens. Many Ministers' offices and departments run schedules of report due dates, based on Cabinet and committee minutes, to assist them in meeting deadlines.

At the direction of Cabinet, the Cabinet Office monitors the timely submission of reports due to Cabinet and committees. The Cabinet Office keeps schedules of report backs to Cabinet and committees, manages requests for extensions to deadlines, and provides committees with advice on outstanding reports. When a report is submitted on or before the deadline, the entry is deleted from the schedule. 

The Cabinet Office monitors only reports requested by Cabinet and committees. Ministers' offices and departments should establish a system for monitoring report backs to Ministers or groups of Ministers, to ensure that they are done.

Setting reporting dates

When departments draft recommendations that request further reports, they should consider the most appropriate recipient for a report back - a single Minister, a group of interested Ministers or a Cabinet committee.

A recommendation that proposes further work must specify who/which committee the report is to be submitted to, a due date, who will undertake the work, and who should be consulted. If the recommendations do not clearly contain this information, the Cabinet Office will contact the relevant Minister's office to have the details included.

For example:

direct the Ministry of Economic Development, in consultation with the Department of Building and Housing, to report to the Cabinet Economic Development Committee by 31 March 2006 on...

or

invite the Minister for Economic Development, in consultation with the Minister for Building and Construction, to report to the Cabinet Economic Development Committee by 31 March 2006 on...

Due dates should be set with a view to their actual achievement. They should not be set lightly or unrealistically.

Seeking an extension to a due date

If a report requested by Cabinet or a Cabinet committee cannot with good reason be submitted on time, officials must do one of the following.

Paper to be submitted up to one month after the due date

The department should advise the Minister's office, which will then advise the Cabinet Office of the proposed new reporting date. Advice should be given to the committee secretary by phone or email before the submission deadline for the relevant meeting. The Minister's office and the committee secretary will decide whether to inform the committee of the delay, depending on the reason(s) for it and its length.

Paper to be submitted more than one month after the due date

The department should draft a memorandum for its Minister to send to the committee chair, via the Cabinet Office, seeking an extension. The memorandum to the chair of the committee should be forwarded to the committee secretary (or the Deputy Secretary of the Cabinet in the case of Cabinet papers). It must summarise the original request for the work, the original due date, the minute reference, the reason for the delay, and the proposed new reporting date. It should also indicate that the proposed extension is supported by other interested Ministers, and that relevant departments have been consulted. An example of a memorandum seeking an extension is provided in the Examples section of the CabGuide.

The committee secretary will submit the request for an extension to the chair of the committee. The chair's agreement will be recorded in a memorandum. This memorandum will be distributed to all interested Ministers and departments in the same way as a Cabinet committee minute. All Ministers will see the memorandum in Cabinet as it will be included in the committee's next report to Cabinet.

Cabinet and committees sometimes request further work to be submitted in a short timeframe (that is, for the next meeting). It is expected that such work will be done on time. If in these circumstances it cannot be done on time, the Cabinet Office needs to be advised, even if it is not going to be one month overdue. Advice should be given to the committee secretary, via the Minister's office, either by phone or email, before the submission deadline for the relevant meeting. The Minister's office and the committee secretary will consider whether there is a need to inform the committee of the delay, depending on the reason(s) for it and its length.

Reports with no due date specified

Where no date is specified for a report requested by Cabinet or a Cabinet committee, the Cabinet Office will discuss the report with the relevant Minister's office and may treat it as overdue one month after the report was requested.

Reports that are no longer required

If a report requested is no longer necessary, the Minister should seek the agreement of the relevant committee chair, by way of a memorandum sent via the committee secretary. The memorandum should summarise the original request for the work, the original due date and the minute reference, and explain why the report is no longer required. It should also indicate that the proposal not to continue with the report is supported by other interested Ministers, and that relevant departments have been consulted. An example of a memorandum seeking to cancel a report that is no longer required is provided in the Examples section of the CabGuide.

The committee secretary will advise the chair of the committee in the same way for an extension.