Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Harris, and I'm the person who's going to be guiding you through today's learning.

The lesson today is called How Is the UK Government Organised, and it's part of a larger series of lessons called How Does the Political System Work in the UK? By the end of today's lesson, you're going to be able to say, I can describe the structure of the government in the UK and explain some of the job roles within it.

Some of this learning might be new to you and some of it might be more challenging.

I'm gonna be here to guide us both all the way through it.

Let's start with the keywords then.

I'm going to say the keyword and you're going to repeat it back, and then I'll give you the definition.

Off we go.

Government.

That's the group of people with the authority to govern a country.

In the UK, the government is chosen and led by the Prime Minister, or PM.

Cabinet.

That's a group of senior members of Parliament who lead major government departments.

The Cabinet meets weekly to make decisions about how government policy will be carried out.

It's time for our first learning cycle called How is the Government Structured? The word structure is talking about how something is built or organised.

And a clear structure can help something function properly.

So if you have a building and it hasn't been built correctly, it hasn't been structured correctly, then it won't be safe, it won't be strong, and it won't be able to do its job properly.

And that's the same with the kind of structure we're talking about today.

When we're talking about the structure of an organisation, that's how everything and how everyone is arranged and managed and how it's all organised to work together.

It's a little bit like having a map or a plan that shows who does what, who's responsible for which area, and how different people and different parts of the organisation can connect to each other to get things done effectively and efficiently.

Having a clear structure is really important because, as Andeep says here, people know who to ask if they need help or information.

If you don't have a clear structure, you have no idea who to ask if you need help.

Jacob says, "Everyone knows what their job is, who is in charge, what they're supposed to do, so there's less confusion." It's really awkward when nobody knows what they're supposed to do and who's supposed to take charge of this, and who's supposed to take charge of this.

And in fact, nothing really gets done because nobody knows who's responsible for what.

So Jacob is absolutely right there.

Laura says, "It helps people work together because everyone knows how their work fits into the bigger picture.

Tasks often get done faster when things are organised." So if I know I've got a certain job that I need to do first before passing it onto somebody else, it really helps that person know what they need to expect and what they need to do as well.

So all this clear structure helps everything be more effective and more efficient.

It's time for the first check for understanding then.

You need to fill in the missing word.

The word structure refers to how something is built or organised.

A clear structure helps something (hums) properly.

What's that missing word? I'll give you a few seconds to think.

Okay, so the word structure refers to how something is built or organised.

A clear structure helps something function properly.

Very good if you got that one.

Now let's move this talk of structure to talk about the UK State Government.

Now that has a very clear structure.

So here we've got a picture of a person that you might know, and this is King Charles, who is the current monarch of the United Kingdom.

Now the Head of State in the UK is the king or queen, that is the monarch.

Now, for centuries in this country, the monarch had the final say on how pretty much everything in the country was run.

Now, however, that's not the case anymore.

Now, the United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, which means, yes, the king or the queen is still the Head of State, but the ability to make laws and to do all the running of the country lies with elected people, so the government and Parliament as well.

So they are chosen specifically by the citizens to run the country, and it is no longer the Head of State.

This doesn't mean that the Head of State has nothing to do though because the monarch still has some ceremonial and traditional rules to carry out.

And some of these include giving the final approval to all laws, opening Parliament every year, and appointing the Prime Minister after a general election.

The monarch must remain politically neutral.

So that means, yes, they can have their own private thoughts about how the country and how society should be run, but publicly, they are not supposed to discuss this, and that is politically neutral.

That means taking neither side or any side.

Another check for understanding then.

So true or false, the monarch of the UK is also the Head of State.

True or false? I should give you a few seconds to think.

Okay then, is that statement true or false? The monarch of the UK is also the Head of State.

It is true, yes.

Let's move on.

There are many, many people working within the UK State Government structure, but the different ways that they get involved with working within it can be very, very different.

Some are elected in, that means chosen by the citizens.

So, for example, members of Parliament, they are elected, chosen by the people who live in the country.

Others are appointed, so they're chosen for their skills or their expertise and their knowledge, and they're handpicked to do certain jobs.

And many, many more are employed, so they're hired after an interview process where they have to apply for the job and say what their skills are.

Now the UK Government structure has three main branches.

These three parts have to work together.

This is as part of this clear structure.

And when they work together, it makes sure that the country is governed fairly and properly.

So let's have a look at those.

As we've said a few slides before, we have the Head of State, that's the monarch.

And one of the branches is Parliament.

That's what we call the legislative branch.

And that's the part of government that is responsible for everything to do with law making.

So they discuss, they debate, and they pass laws for the whole of the UK.

The second branch is the government, and that's the executive branch.

So that's one that's responsible for all the day-to-day running of the country, so making sure that any laws that Parliament put through, they make sure that they're carried out.

And they make policies about public services and all kinds of different things of how the UK is run.

The third branch is the judiciary, and that is the judicial branch.

So you can tell maybe by looking at that picture that that's to do with the legal side and the court side.

And it's responsible for the legal fairness, protection of people's rights, and serving justice if justice needs to be done.

So things like the courts and the legal system.

And the branch that we're gonna be concentrating on today is the executive branch of government.

Another quick check for understanding then.

Enforcing the laws and policies to keep the country running day-to-day is the responsibility of which branch of the UK State? So the laws and policies to keep the country running day-to-day.

Is that the Parliament, the legislative branch? Is it the government, the executive branch? Or is it the judiciary, the judicial branch? Take a few seconds to think about it.

Okay, which branch is it the responsibility of? It is the government branch.

Yes, it's the executive branch which deals with the running day-to-day responsibilities of the UK Government.

Let's look a little bit more in detail about the structure of this executive branch of the government then.

Well, the very, very head of it is the Prime Minister.

We have the Cabinet, we have government departments, and then we have the civil service and arm's-length bodies.

Now we're gonna look a little bit more in detail of these different parts of the government.

So the head of the UK Government is the Prime Minister, or the PM.

Now the Prime Minister is an elected member of Parliament, so they've been chosen by the citizens of the UK, and often they're the leader of the political party that is in power and that controls the government at the time.

The Prime Minister has a huge responsibility for all of the policies and the decisions made by the government.

They also have the responsibility to choose the Cabinet.

Now the Cabinet is picked by the Prime Minister, yes, but then they are ceremonially appointed by the monarch, that's by the Head of State.

Do you remember the traditional roles we talked about earlier? Well, this is one of them.

Those people that get chosen to be on this Cabinet, they are usually members of Parliament within the House of Commons or they might be peers, lords, or ladies as part of the House of Lords.

The Cabinet then is responsible for making lots of really important decisions, creating the policies, and making plans for the UK for now and for the future.

Obviously, with it being picked by the Prime Minister, they have to work really, really closely with that person.

And often, the Cabinet is filled with members of Parliament from the same political party as the Prime Minister themselves.

Occasionally, if you've got a coalition government, where that's made of two political parties coming together to take control of the government, the Cabinet might be filled with people from two different political parties, but mostly it's from the same political party as the Prime Minister.

Now the Cabinet meets at least weekly at Whitehall in London, and that's the place that is pictured here on the screen.

Another check for understanding then.

So to be a part of the Cabinet, a person must be elected by citizens, appointed by the PM, or employed after an interview.

Which of these answers fits this? I shall give you a few seconds to think.

Okay then, so to be part of the Cabinet, then a person must be appointed by the PM, yes.

Now, as we've said, people on the Cabinet are more than likely going to be members of Parliament.

And these members of Parliament will be elected by the citizens of the UK.

But to actually get onto the Cabinet, that is the Prime Minister's job and only the Prime Minister's job to select those people.

Let's move on to government departments then.

These pictures on the screen now give you a clue about some of the things that the government departments deal with.

And there are 44 different departments, and they cover a huge range of areas, for example, finances and the UK economy, things like international trade, so selling and buying things from abroad from different countries, things like national security, and all of the transport for UK as well.

It's the government department's then responsibility to put into place any of the policies made by the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

They have to carry out the day-to-day running of these, so they have to find a way to get these policies into practise and working across the UK.

They have to then develop more plans.

They have to manage any national issues.

And they've also got the responsibility of things like delivering public services.

So that might be related to education, or healthcare, or lots of other different ways in which the government serve the people of the UK.

The Civil Service then.

So the Civil Service is there to support the government departments even further.

And that's to help them carry out this day-to-day work and the implementing of the policies made by the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

Examples of departments that work directly with the Civil Service are the Department for Education.

So that's the part of the government which looks at everything to do with education, child welfare, and they put plans in place and make policies.

You have the Department for Transport.

So that's all of your regulation and your managing of roads, the aviation, so that's your sky travel, tunnels, bridges, harbours, all that kind of thing.

And also, His Majesty's Treasury, and that's the part that deals with all the finances, how the government spend its money, and things like taxation as well.

The Civil Service is a politically neutral body.

And Jacob's telling us here that in the same way that a referee in sport doesn't get involved and pick sides, it's the same for the Civil Service.

And that helps the government implements or put in place its plans, but it doesn't get involved in the actual politics there.

And that helps keep the Civil Service fair and impartial.

So it means not taking sides.

This means the Civil Service can carry out its many roles and its responsibilities, and it doesn't matter which party is in government at the time, and it doesn't matter if there's a regular change because the Civil Service will be there, carrying out its services, which makes it stable and very reliable as well.

True or false then.

The Civil Service expresses its political beliefs in its work.

Is that true or false? Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, so is that true or false, that the Civil Service expresses its political beliefs? It is false, no, they do not.

So why? Take a few more seconds to think.

Okay, so the Civil Service does not express its political beliefs in its work because it's a politically neutral body.

So remember, it helps the government departments implement the plans made by the Cabinet and the Prime Minister, but it doesn't get involved in those party politics.

And that helps it run fairly and impartially, without taking sides, depending which political party is in power at the time.

Well done if you got that one.

Arm's-length bodies then, so that's ALBs.

So arm's-length bodies carry out very specific tasks on behalf of the government departments.

And that might be things like enforcing laws, setting standards.

It might even be for things like providing expert advice, services, or carrying out research.

All these ALBs are linked to or sponsored by government departments, but they're not all led and managed by ministers.

So it's the same way that the Civil Service is linked to different ministers but not necessarily led.

It's the same for arm's-length bodies.

Some of them work quite independently, and they might be managed more with a board or a committee that has been hired and has been taken on through their skills and expertise.

But a little bit, again, like having an interview process to put those people in position rather than being elected, like MPs, for example.

Again then, like the Civil Service, arm's-length bodies are designed to be politically neutral.

And that means that their very specialist work can take place to serve the public fairly and impartially, without them taking sides of which political party they support the most.

Some examples of arm's-length bodies then are the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency, which is known as the DVLA.

They're responsible for things like road safety, people registering their vehicles, and also drivers getting their licences.

It's all of their responsibility.

You've got the National Health Service for England, or NHS England.

And that's the part, isn't it, that's all responsible for the healthcare and provision of those services for the public in England.

You've also got the Food Standards Agency, or the FSA.

And that's the part which regulates about the food industry in the UK.

So they're in charge of things like making sure food is safe to eat, that it's correctly labelled so that allergies are mentioned on packaging, and also that food has the high standards that we expect, that it meets those high standards and makes the food safe for the UK public to eat.

Time to complete the sentence now by filling in the missing word.

So all arm's-length bodies are linked to or sponsored by a government department, but not all are led and managed by who? Take a few seconds to think about it.

Okay, let's look at this answer then.

So all arm's-length bodies are linked to or sponsored by a government department, but not all are led and managed by ministers.

That's correct.

Some are more independently run, and they might have a committee or a board in charge of them.

Very good job if you got that one.

It's time for your first task then, Task A.

Your job is to fill in the missing words to complete this paragraph about the government's structure.

And there's some words here in the word bank to be able to help you.

Those words are neutral, executive, policies, Cabinet, independence, and monarch.

I'll read the paragraph to you and then you are going to put those missing words in place.

The Head of State in the UK is the.

The UK state has three branches, legislative, (hums), and judicial.

The Prime Minister leads the UK Government and appoints (hums) members to create (hums) for the UK.

The Cabinet oversees government departments which implement these policies.

They are supported by the politically (hums) Civil Service.

Arm's-length bodies handle specific tasks for the government.

Some are led by ministers.

Others are more (hums).

Pause this video to give yourself the time to do the task and then we'll come back and go through the answers together.

Okay, let's go through the answers to Task A together then.

Here we go.

The Head of State in the UK is the monarch.

The UK State has three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial.

The Prime Minister leads the UK Government and appoints Cabinet members to create policies for the UK.

The Cabinet oversees government departments which implement these policies.

They are supported by the politically neutral Civil Service.

Arm's-length bodies handle specific tasks for the departments.

Some are led by ministers, others are more independent.

Really good if you've got all of those gaps filled correctly.

Well done.

It's time for the second learning cycle now called What Are the Job Roles in the Government? In the same way that there were lots of different departments within the government, there are lots of different job roles within the government structure as well.

Lots of them are linked to each other by the role that they do, and they're also linked by the departments in which they work.

So here we've got the Prime Minister, who is linked to senior ministers.

They are linked to junior ministers.

And then you've got senior and junior ministers who are also linked to civil servants and public sector workers.

Senior ministers then.

These are the people who are handpicked by the Prime Minister to be on the Cabinet.

So they are therefore then known as senior ministers.

They're also known as secretaries of state.

Remember the government departments we talked about earlier? Well, these Cabinet ministers are the heads of all of those different government departments, and they work really closely with the Prime Minister to make these policies for the whole of the UK.

And in February, 2025, there were 22 senior ministers on the Cabinet at that time.

Job roles on the Cabinet include the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

So that's the person who manages the economy, the finances, taxes, and all of government spending.

The Home Secretary looks after immigration, so people coming into the country, and security as well.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions manages things like welfare, benefits, and also things like pensions as well, so when people retire, the money that they will get from the state.

And also the Foreign Secretary, who's responsible for keeping those positive relationships with other countries.

There's also the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

And that's the person who manages things like the NHS, public health, and social care, which is the provision of public services for people who've got disabilities, or people who are older, or people who have very specific care needs.

A quick check for understanding then.

So senior ministers are also known as secretaries of? UK, Cabinet, or state? Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, so senior ministers are also known as secretaries of state.

That's correct, well done.

Junior ministers are the people who work very closely with senior ministers.

Now, senior ministers are sort of their line manager, a little bit like their bosses.

So like the Cabinet, these MPs who are junior ministers, they get appointed by the monarch, but again, they're chosen by the Prime Minister.

And in February, 2025, there were 99 junior ministers.

The top tier of junior minister is often known as a minister of state.

And then the next tier is known as a parliamentary secretary, which is sometimes also called a Parliamentary under-secretary of state.

In every government department, there might be up to four junior ministers working within that.

Now, unlike senior ministers who have direct control over a government department, junior ministers don't get that.

They don't get overall control.

They do manage projects within a government department.

So they also work closely with the Civil Service and sometimes they work quite closely with arm's-length bodies as well.

So, for example, you've got the Secretary of State for Education, they lead the department, but then you've got junior ministers who see small areas and projects within that department.

So you've got the Secretary of State for Education, under them, so the junior ministers under that senior minister will be the Minister of State for Universities, and then there'll be another junior minister who looks at the school standards, so they're the Minister of State for School Standards.

Time to fill in this missing number then to complete the sentence.

In February, 2025, there were (hums) junior ministers working within the UK government.

Which number completes this sentence? Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, how many junior ministers were working in February, 2025? There were 99 of them.

Very good if you got that one.

The Civil Service we talked about earlier, the people that work within that are called civil servants.

They work alongside senior and junior ministers.

Now, civil servants are employed in a recruitment way.

So they're not appointed or handpicked by the Prime Minister, like other people are.

They sort of have to prove themselves and go apply for the jobs and prove their skills and expertise before they can begin to do the job.

So it might be through an interview and things like that, so not picked in the same way as MPs are appointed, like the Cabinet.

Again, we've got this term here, politically neutral.

So the Civil Service itself is politically neutral, but also, civil servants within the Civil Service have to be politically neutral.

So, yes, individuals can still have their own political views, but they can't allow these to affect what they do in their job.

And this means that when they are neutral about it, when they are not biassed in any way, they can carry out their duties based on evidence, using their expertise, and not changing things depending on what they believe about how the country should be run or how society should be run.

Workers within arm's-length bodies, again, they are employed in the same way as civil servants are, so by an interview and a recruitment process.

With both the arm's-length bodies and with the Civil Service, they work with senior and junior ministers, but they're not directly line managed.

So the ministers aren't their bosses as such.

With arm's-length bodies, the people who are in charge are often a committee or a board of people who make those decisions for the whole of the arm's-length body.

You'll find that some of the people who work within the arm's-length body are called civil servants even though they don't technically work for the Civil Service.

But most of the people who do work within an arm's-length body are called public sector workers.

And Laura here is giving us some examples of people who are public sector workers.

So that can include healthcare professionals, teachers, police officers, firefighters, armed forces, and all local government workers as well.

Another true or false then.

So civil servants and other public sector workers are appointed to their positions in the same way as the MPs are appointed to the Cabinet.

Is that true or false? Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, are civil servants and other public sector workers appointed in the same way as MPs are when they're appointed to the Cabinet? That is false.

No, they're not, are they, but why? Take a few more seconds to think.

Alright, why are they appointed in a different way to their role as well? It's because civil servants and other public sector workers are employed via recruitment process.

So like an interview, they fill out an application form and then they have an interview.

They're not appointed.

They're not just chosen by the Prime Minister to sit in their roles like the Cabinet is.

It's time for Task B then.

So this one here requires a bit of creativity on your part because you are going to create a structure diagram to show how the UK Government is organised.

You're going to include the different parts of the government and then you're gonna indicate which roles and groups of people work within each part.

You need to include arm's-length bodies, the Cabinet, civil servants, Civil Service, government departments, junior ministers, Prime Minister, public sector workers, and senior ministers.

Okay, so all of those different things, you need to figure out a structured diagram to show how all of those things are related and how they work together.

A good idea now is to pause the video to give yourself the time to do that.

And then we'll come back and look at some possibilities of how a structured diagram could be created.

Alright then, how did you find that? Let's have a look at some possible answers.

So here is one of mine, and yours might have looked something like this.

So here, I've got the Prime Minister there.

And that person is linked to the Cabinet.

The Cabinet is linked to government departments, and Civil Service, and arm's-length bodies.

And then we've got the job roles within that.

So there we've got senior ministers connected to the Cabinet and government departments.

And then I've got a dotted line there because that shows that they work with the Civil Service and the arm's-length bodies, but they don't lead those services.

They work alongside.

And it's the same for junior ministers as well.

Junior ministers are linked to government departments, the Civil Service, and the arm's-length bodies, but again, with the Civil Service and arm's-length bodies, they work with and alongside, they don't manage it as such.

And then we've got civil servants linked to Civil Service and arm's-length bodies.

And you've got public sector workers there linked to arm's-length bodies.

Alternatively, you might have come up with a slightly different structure.

And here's another one that I did.

So I've gone with almost a Venn diagram type structure here, where you've got the Cabinets there with the pink circle, you've got the government departments with the green circle, you've got the Civil Service with the purple circle, and then you've got the arm's-length bodies with the blue circle.

And then the people within that, you've got the Prime Minister who works within the Cabinet.

And then you've got the government departments there, where you've got the senior ministers and junior ministers within it.

And then you've also got the civil servants and the public sector workers.

Can you see those dotted lines again? So the senior ministers and junior ministers don't work directly within the Civil Service or the arm's-length bodies, but they do work with and alongside those parts of the government.

A really good job if you've got something like that.

Everybody's could look completely different.

So as long as you've got those connecting ways, the way that the government departments are linked, and the way that the job roles are linked, well done.

Let's summarise our lesson then, which is called How Is the UK Government Organised? The UK State Government has three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial.

The Head of State is the monarch, who carries out ceremonial duties.

The UK Government is the executive branch, led by the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister appoints senior ministers on the Cabinet.

These are the heads of government departments, and they make policies for the UK.

Junior ministers support senior ministers by overseeing small areas within a government department.

They work closely with the Civil Service, which is a politically neutral body which carries out the implementation of the government policies.

And the employees are called civil servants.

Arm's-length bodies also carry out government work.

The workers are called civil servants or public sector workers.

You have done brilliantly on this lesson today.

Well done.

Hope to see you again soon.