A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parliamentary systems than in systems where cabinet heads must be confirmed by a separate legislative body, and occur frequently in autocratic systems without suitable checks-and-balances. A shadow cabinet reshuffle may take place to change positions in a shadow cabinet. In parliamentary systems Cabinet reshuffles happen in parliamentary systems for a variety of reasons. Periodically, smaller reshuffles are needed to replace ministers who have resigned, retired or died. Reshuffles are also a way for a premier to "refresh" the government, often in the face of poor polling numbers; remove poor performers; and reward supporters and punish others. It is common after elections, even if the party in power is retained, as the prime minister's reading of public opinion as evidenced by the election may require some change in policy, in addition to any changes resulting from the retirement or defeat of individual ministers at the election. Similarly, prime ministers entering office from the same party as the previous one might appoint a very different ministry than their predecessor to reflect a change in policies and priorities; an example is Gordon Brown's government, formed on 28 June 2007 after the departure of Tony Blair the previous day. A reshuffle also provides an opportunity to create, abolish and rename departments (and ministerial posts) and to reassign responsibilities among departments. This may be done to reflect new priorities or for reasons of efficiency. Canada 2018 Canadian cabinet reshuffle 2021 Canadian cabinet reshuffle India 2021 Indian cabinet reshuffle United Kingdom Night of the Long Knives (1962) 2006 British cabinet reshuffle 2012 British cabinet reshuffle 2014 British cabinet reshuffle 2018 British cabinet reshuffle 2020 British cabinet reshuffle 2021 British cabinet reshuffle July 2022 British cabinet reshuffle September 2022 British cabinet reshuffle October 2022 British cabinet reshuffle 2023 British cabinet reshuffle Shadow Cabinet reshuffle 2016 British shadow cabinet reshuffle May 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle November 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle In other democratic systems Cabinet reshuffles are far less common in systems where members of the Cabinet are not drawn from the legislative branch. In such systems there is a far larger pool of viable candidates to choose a cabinet from. Members of such