Editing Cabinet of the United Kingdom (section)

==Composition==
The [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] decides the membership and attendees of the Cabinet.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 2011 |title=The Cabinet Manual |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/60641/cabinet-manual.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180415090557/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/60641/cabinet-manual.pdf |archive-date=15 April 2018 |access-date=18 August 2021 |website=[[Government of the United Kingdom]] |page=22}}</ref>

The total number of Cabinet ministers who are entitled to a salary is capped by [[Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975|statute]] at 21, plus the [[Lord Chancellor]], who is paid separately.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Rhodes |first1=Chris |last2=Watson |first2=Chris |date=6 August 2021 |title=Limitations on the number of Ministers |url=https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03378/SN03378.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611011836/http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03378/SN03378.pdf |archive-date=11 June 2015 |access-date=18 August 2021 |website=[[Parliament of the United Kingdom]] |page=6}}</ref> Some ministers may be designated as also attending Cabinet, like the [[Attorney General for England and Wales|Attorney General]],<ref name=":2"/> as "...it has been considered more appropriate, in recent times at any rate, that the independence and detachment of his office should not be blurred by his inclusion in a political body – that is to say the Cabinet – which may have to make policy decisions upon the basis of the legal advice the law officers have given."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Elwyn |author-link=Elwyn Jones, Baron Elwyn-Jones |date=April 1969 |title=The Office of Attorney-General |journal=[[Cambridge Law Journal]] |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=47 |doi=10.1017/S0008197300088899 |s2cid=145400357}}</ref>

The Cabinet is a committee of the Privy Council (though this interpretation has been challenged) and, as such, all Cabinet ministers must be privy counsellors.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hennessy |first=Peter |title=The Prime Minister: The Office and its Holders Since 1945 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0140283938 |pages=47 |author-link=Peter Hennessy}}</ref>

Members of the Cabinet are by convention chosen from members of the two houses of Parliament, as convention dictates that ministers may only be recruited from the House of Commons or the House of Lords, although this convention has been broken in the past for short periods.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shaw |first=Neil |date=2023-11-13 |title=How David Cameron can be Foreign Secretary when he is not an MP |url=https://www.kentlive.news/news/uk-world-news/how-david-cameron-can-foreign-8902377 |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=Nottinghamshire Live |language=en}}</ref> [[Patrick Gordon Walker]] is perhaps the most notable exception: he was appointed to the Cabinet despite losing his seat in the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 general election]], and resigned from Cabinet after running and losing in a by-election in January 1965.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hennessy |first=Peter |title=The Prime Minister: The Office and its Holders Since 1945 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0140283938 |pages=47–48 |author-link=Peter Hennessy}}</ref> Sometimes, when a minister from neither House is appointed, they have been granted a customary peerage.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How members are appointed |url=https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/whos-in-the-house-of-lords/members-and-their-roles/how-members-are-appointed/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120512043644/http://www.parliament.uk:80/business/lords/whos-in-the-house-of-lords/members-and-their-roles/how-members-are-appointed/ |archive-date=12 May 2012 |access-date=18 August 2021 |website=[[Parliament of the United Kingdom]]}}</ref> The Cabinet is now made up almost entirely of members of the House of Commons.<ref name=":2"/>

[[Civil Service (United Kingdom)|Civil servants]] from the Cabinet Secretariat and [[Special adviser (UK)|special advisers]] (on the approval of the prime minister) can also attend Cabinet meetings, but neither take part in discussions.<ref name=":3"/>

It has been suggested that the modern Cabinet is too large, including by former [[Cabinet Secretary (United Kingdom)|Cabinet Secretary]] [[Mark Sedwill]] and scholars Robert Hazell and [[Rodney Brazier]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |title=Times letters: Mark Sedwill's call for a cull of the cabinet |language=en |work=[[The Times]] |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/times-letters-mark-sedwills-call-for-a-cull-of-the-cabinet-6x2kgqdhc |access-date=2020-11-30 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2020-09-07 |title=Rodney Brazier: Why is Her Majesty's Government so big? |url=https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/2020/09/07/rodney-brazier-why-is-her-majestys-government-so-big/ |access-date=2020-11-30 |website=UK Constitutional Law Association |language=en}}</ref> Hazell has suggested merging the offices of [[Secretary of State for Northern Ireland]], Scotland, and [[Secretary of State for Wales|Wales]] into one Secretary of State for the Union,<ref name=":0"/> in a department into which Rodney Brazier has suggested adding a minister of state for England with responsibility for [[Subdivisions of England|English local government]].<ref name=":1"/>