Thread by @GeorgePeretzQC

Interested as to why this is needed.

https://twitter.com/politicoeurope/status/1357236775765368833

For Secretaries of State, there’s a general rule that anything they do can be done by a junior minister: look at who signs most statutory instruments made “by the Secretary of State”, and at junior ministers taking eg planning decisions when the incumbent SoS has a conflict.

And of course Carltona: the general principle that civil servants can take decisions in the name of the SoS.

Nor is there any rule that only an SoS can attend cabinet - a junior minister can go in her stead if she is eg travelling abroad.

So an SoS on maternity leave wouldn’t need to be replaced, or constantly bothered by red boxes: her Minister of State just holds the fort.

There may be something particular about the AG that means that she has to take certain decisions personally (which the Solicitor General can’t take on her behalf).

Twitter will tell me if there is.

But absent that, I’m curious as to why this change is needed.