6. Executive Power
Prime Minister, ministers, Cabinet, Civil Service, Crown prerogative and political accountability.
How to study the CPQ Foundation stage
Prepare each separately assessed component on its own terms, then connect law, regulation, client service and research across the full stage.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Executive functions are distributed among ministers, Cabinet, departments and the Civil Service.
Exam cue: Identify whether authority is statutory, prerogative or conventional.
Concept 2
Prerogative power operates within constitutional and statutory limits.
Exam cue: Separate political accountability from legal review.
Concept 3
Individual ministerial responsibility and collective responsibility provide political accountability.
Exam cue: Check whether legislation has displaced or constrained prerogative.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Assuming prerogative power overrides statute.
Guardrail: Do not mix module boundaries, confuse marks with item counts, exceed professional authority or rely on an outdated or unverified legal source.
Treating the Civil Service as the legislature.
Guardrail: Do not mix module boundaries, confuse marks with item counts, exceed professional authority or rely on an outdated or unverified legal source.
Confusing collective Cabinet responsibility with court liability.
Guardrail: Do not mix module boundaries, confuse marks with item counts, exceed professional authority or rely on an outdated or unverified legal source.
Memory anchors
Power source
Executive authority may be statutory or prerogative and is bounded by law.
Accountability
Ministers answer individually for portfolios and collectively for Cabinet policy.
Statute prevails
Prerogative cannot be used inconsistently with governing legislation.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
A minister claims prerogative power to contradict an Act governing the same subject. What is the correct approach?
What is collective Cabinet responsibility?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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