A cabinet department or prime minister's department is a department or other

government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...

that directly supports the work of the government's central executive office, usually the cabinet and/or

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, rather than specific ministerial portfolios. Such a department is present in many

parliamentary democracies A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of the legisl ...

. The department is roughly equivalent in function to a president's office in a

presidential system A presidential, strong-president, or single-executive system (sometimes also congressional system) is a form of government in which a head of government (usually titled " president") heads an executive branch that derives its authority and l ...

of government or an office of the

council of ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

in a

semi-presidential system A semi-presidential republic, or dual executive republic, is a republic in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the legislature of the state. It differs from a parliament ...

Typology

In many countries, such a department is called a Prime Minister's Office. In some other countries, there is a Cabinet Office. In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister's Office is a part of the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...

; in Australia and New Zealand, there is a single department called the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. In some countries, such as Germany and Poland, the department supporting the prime minister (the

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

in Germany) is called the chancellery. Self-governing states and provinces within

federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

s that are parliamentary democracies often have similar departments, such as a premier's department or, in Australia, Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

List of cabinet or prime minister's departments

* Australia: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet ** New South Wales: Department of Premier and Cabinet ** Queensland: Department of the Premier and Cabinet (Queensland) ** South Australia: Department of the Premier and Cabinet ** Victoria: Department of Premier and Cabinet ** Western Australia: Department of the Premier and Cabinet (Western Australia) * Bangladesh: ** Prime Minister's Office **

Cabinet Division The Cabinet Division () is the executive office of the Chief Adviser of Bangladesh. As a division of the Government of Bangladesh The government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh () is the central government of Bangladesh. The gove ...

* Brunei: Prime Minister's Office * Canada: ** Office of the Prime Minister ** Privy Council Office * China: **

General Office of the State Council A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED Online ...

* Germany:

German Chancellery The Federal Chancellery (, ) is a Germany, German Federal agency (Germany), federal agency serving the executive office of the chancellor of Germany, the head of the Government of Germany, federal government, currently Friedrich Merz. The Chancel ...

* Iceland: Prime Minister's Office * India: Prime Minister's Office * Ireland:

Department of the Taoiseach The Department of the Taoiseach () is the government department of the Taoiseach, the title in Ireland for the head of government.Article 13.1.1° and Article 28.5.1° of the Constitution of Ireland. The latter provision reads: "The head of the ...

* Israel: Prime Minister's Office * Italy:

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

* Japan: ** Cabinet Secretariat **

* Malaysia: Prime Minister's Department * Nepal: Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers * Netherlands:

Ministry of General Affairs The Ministry of General Affairs (; AZ) is the Dutch Ministry responsible for government policy, planning, information, and the Dutch royal house. The Ministry was created in 1937 and dissolved in 1945, but in 1947 it was reinstated by Prime Min ...

* New Zealand: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet * Norway: Office of the Prime Minister *Philippines: ** Office of the President ** Cabinet Secretariat * Poland:

Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland The Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland ( Polish: ''Kancelaria Prezesa Rady Ministrów - lit. Chancellery of the President of the Council of Ministers''), or KPRM, is the executive office for the Prime Minister of Poland. Created under the ...

* Portugal: Presidency of the Council of Ministers * Singapore: Prime Minister's Office * Sri Lanka: **

** Prime Minister's Office * Switzerland:

Federal Chancellery of Switzerland The Federal Chancellery of Switzerland is a department-level agency of the federal administration of Switzerland. It is the staff organisation of the federal government, the Federal Council (Switzerland), Federal Council. Since 2024, it has bee ...

* Thailand: Office of the Prime Minister * United Kingdom: **

** Prime Minister's Office * United States:

Executive Office of the President of the United States The Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The office consists o ...

Former

* Northern Ireland: Department of the Prime Minister

Typology

List of cabinet or prime minister's departments

Former

See also