From time to time the Cabinet may establish Cabinet sub-committees to work on specific issues or processes. These Cabinet committees often provide a preliminary forum for more detailed consideration and discussion of issues before final decision-making by a full Cabinet meeting.

Cabinet committees derive their power from Cabinet. All Cabinet committee decisions should be reported to Cabinet for confirmation and Cabinet retains the ultimate power of decision, unless the power to make decisions is expressly delegated by Cabinet to a Cabinet Committee. In all other cases, Ministers and public officers must not act on Cabinet committee decisions until they have been confirmed by the Cabinet.

The Cabinet may determine the structure of Cabinet committees and the membership, chair and terms of reference of each Cabinet committee. Generally, these will be ad hoc sub-committees set up for a limited time.

Most of the procedures in this Manual will apply to such committees, their documents and meetings. However, sub-committees will usually operate with less formal meeting procedures and may include members who are not Ministers, for example Parliamentary Secretaries, senior officials or external experts.

The Cabinet conclusion establishing the Cabinet committee will specify the chair of the committee and its membership, as well as its terms of reference. Except where otherwise noted in the relevant Cabinet conclusion, other Ministers may attend meetings of a committee.

The Cabinet Office will provide secretariat support for Cabinet committee meetings, with technical support provided by other organizations where required.

Except where explicitly decided otherwise by Cabinet, the proceedings and documents of Cabinet committees are subject to the confidentiality provisions applying to meetings of the full Cabinet. In most cases ad hoc sub-committees will prepare recommendations to the full Cabinet, which will also be confidential unless approved by Cabinet for publication.

Decisions and recommendations of sub-committees are not subject to the collective responsibility principle and do not bind committee members or other members of Cabinet.

From time to time the Cabinet may also establish standing sub-committees to perform on-going functions on behalf of the Cabinet, in order to reduce the number of proposals being submitted to full Cabinet meetings and to enable Cabinet to focus on more strategic issues.

One such sub-committee is the standing Cabinet committee on Training and Travel, which is responsible for:

1. developing guidelines and criteria for proposed training and travel by public officers and members of the Government, to ensure that decisions on training and travel reflect national priorities (including decisions on who attends training and on essential travel), represent value for money in utilizing government funds and opportunities provided by international partners and consider the indirect costs of officials undertaking training or travel;
2. approving specific training and travel proposals on behalf of the Cabinet where those proposals are consistent with the guidelines agreed by Cabinet;
3. referring to Cabinet proposals that fall outside the approved guidelines or that raise major national or political issues; and
4. reporting to Cabinet every 6 months on the approved training and travel and evidence of its benefits for Grenada.

Cabinet committees may also be established from time to time to deal with other routine proposals, to enable the Cabinet to focus on strategic priorities.