Submitting Cabinet and committee papers
The checklist for Ministers' offices lists all the steps required for submitting a paper to Cabinet or a Cabinet committee. Note that papers must be hand delivered to Cabinet Office reception by a member of the Minister's office. The Cabinet Office is on the 10th floor of the Beehive.
If a paper has a set of recommendations longer than about two pages, it can be useful to give them to the Cabinet Office in electronic form, so this text does not have to be re-typed for the coversheet. The file can be saved as Word 97 and supplied either on disk or by email attachment, if appropriate, in accordance with the security classification of the paper.
If a paper is large (20+ pages) or has attachments, such as documents for which approval is sought for release, departments should provide enough copies for the Cabinet Office to distribute. For papers to be submitted to Cabinet, 33 copies are required. For committee meetings, departments/Ministers' offices should check with the relevant committee secretary about the number of copies required (usually between 30 and 50).
Where can I get copies of the Cabinet Office forms?
What if I haven't received an agenda, paper or minute?
Papers direct to Cabinet
Papers are not usually submitted directly to Cabinet without having first been considered by a Cabinet committee. Exceptions are papers proposing or reporting on Ministers' overseas travel.
Other papers are occasionally accepted for submission direct to Cabinet because they are particularly urgent or sensitive. Where a Minister wishes to submit a paper direct to Cabinet, the Minister's office should advise the Deputy Secretary of the Cabinet by midday on the preceding Wednesday for a Monday Cabinet meeting, and discuss whether it might be useful for the Minister to talk or write to the Prime Minister about submitting the paper direct to Cabinet.
What is the deadline for papers?
'Round robin' papers
Round robins are sometimes used to process Cabinet committee papers of a routine or information nature, without placing them on the agenda for a meeting. Instead, they are considered by each committee member independently. The chair of the committee will decide which papers will be considered by round robin. The following kinds of papers may be considered suitable for consideration by round robin, if they do not raise significant issues that require discussion:
- papers that are simply for Ministers' information;
- papers that have only noting recommendations (for example, progress reports on implementation); and
- papers about routine administrative matters.
Ministers may submit papers suitable for round robin consideration to the Cabinet Office at any time. Ministers' offices should indicate on the cover sheet for submissions (CAB 101 form) that their Minister would like the paper to be dealt with by round robin. The committee chair or secretary may also identify papers that are suitable for consideration by round robin.
Papers for consideration by Round Robin will be distributed to each member of the committee, other relevant portfolio Ministers, and relevant chief executives, in the same way as all committee papers. But, instead of the papers being considered at a meeting, each Minister considers the paper independently and advises the Cabinet Office, on a form distributed with the paper, whether or not they agree with the proposals. If all Ministers agree with an item, the Cabinet Office will issue a minute. The minute will be included in the usual way in the committee's next report to Cabinet. If any Minister disagrees with a paper, the item will be placed on the next agenda of the committee for discussion.