Secretary of State (United Kingdom)
{{Short description|Member of the Cabinet of the UK government}}
{{For|secretaries of state of the Kingdom of England before 1707|Secretary of State (England)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{uk-gov-positions}}
His Majesty's principal secretaries of state, or secretaries of state, are senior ministers of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. Secretaries of state head most major government departments and make up the majority of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
Legal position
File:Parking sign in Richmond Park, UK - 3.jpg citing the authority of the Secretary of State.]]
{{improve|section|reason=tone not only inappropriate but what does this example even explain. Add an explanation of what the example is trying to accomplish, and ideally, replace the example for something appropriate for the subject matter|date=March 2025}}
Legislation in the United Kingdom is often written like this example section of a hypothetical Silly Walks Act 1970:
{{blockquote|
1. Grant powers
On the appointed day, the Secretary of State shall be empowered to grant money towards the development of fatuous ambulations as seen fit.}}
In legislation, the term "Secretary of State", thus capitalised, is interpreted under the Interpretation Act 1978{{cite legislation UK |type=act |year=1978 |act=Interpretation Act 1978 |chapter=30 |schedule=1 |mode=cs1 |access-date=17 November 2023|quote="Secretary of State" means one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State.}} as referring to any one of the secretaries of state in use; in practice, such secretaries of state are each allocated a portfolio by the prime minister, and only exercise the powers in that portfolio.{{Cite web |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-manual |title=Cabinet Manual |date=14 December 2010 |publisher=Cabinet Office |website=The Cabinet Manual |quote=3.27 It is also the well-established practice for each secretary of state to be allocated responsibility by the Prime Minister for a particular department (for example health, foreign affairs, defence, transport, education etc.) and, accordingly, for each Secretary of State, in practice, to exercise only those functions that are within that department.}} In this example, a "secretary of state for Silly Walks" would be appointed to exercise the provisions of the act, but could theoretically exercise the powers of, for example, the secretary of state for Scotland at any time. There are exceptions, in that legislation sometimes refers to particular secretaries of state.For example:
- {{cite legislation UK |type=act |year=2017 |act=Digital Economy Act 2017 |chapter=30 |schedule=4 |mode=cs1 |access-date=22 June 2023}}
- {{cite legislation UK |type=act |year=1920 |chapter=16 |schedule=0 |act=Imperial War Museum Act 1920 |mode=cs1 |access-date=22 June 2023}}
Under the Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975, a maximum of 21 secretaries of state can receive a salary.{{cite web |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1975/27/schedule/1/paragraph/2 |title=Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975, Schedule 1, Part V, Paragraph 2 |work=legislation.gov.uk |access-date=1 February 2021 |quote=In the case of the following offices a salary may be paid to more than one holder of the office at the same time, subject to the limitations expressed below, that is to say— (a) Secretary of State, so long as not more than 21 salaries are paid at the same time in accordance with Part I above;}}
Secretaries of state and other government ministers are appointed by the monarch exercising royal prerogative on the advice of the government.[http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm71/7170/7170.pdf The Governance of Britain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071201132614/http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm71/7170/7170.pdf |date=1 December 2007 }} By convention secretaries of state must be a member of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, but the prime minister can advise the monarch to confer a peerage to satisfy this requirement.{{Cite web |last=Kelly |first=Richard |date=17 November 2023 |title=Ministers in the House of Lords |url=https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05226/ |access-date=30 November 2023 |publisher=House of Commons Library}}
Most secretaries of state are incorporated as a "corporation sole". This gives the minister a separate legal personality, allowing continuity in areas such as the ownership of property between office-holder changes.{{Cite book |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-manual |title=Cabinet Manual |date=14 December 2010 |publisher=Cabinet Office |website=The Cabinet Manual |quote=3.28 Most secretaries of state are incorporated as 'corporations sole'. This gives the minister a separate legal personality. This is administratively convenient, for example as regards the ownership of property, because it facilitates continuity when the officeholder changes. }}
History
=Kingdom of England=
{{Main|Secretary of State (England)}}
The origin of the office lies in the office of the king's private secretary.{{Cite book |last=Brazier |first=Rodney |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37301571 |title=Ministers of the Crown |date=1997 |publisher=Clarendon |isbn=0-19-825988-3 |location=Oxford |pages=9–10 |oclc=37301571}} However, by the Tudor period, the office's purview had become more onerous.
In 1539 or 1540, Henry VIII appointed two people to the office.{{Cite book|last=Pickrill|first=DA|title=Ministers of the Crown|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|year=1981|isbn=0-7100-0916-X}}{{rp|p.29}} After the Stuart Restoration, the practice of appointing two secretaries of state resumed.{{Cite book|last=Sainty|first=J. C.|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/office-holders/vol2/pp1-21#h3-0008|title=Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 2 - Officials of the Secretaries of State 1660-1782|via=British History Online|publisher=University of London|year=1973|pages=1–21|language=en|chapter=Introduction|quote=At the Restoration [in 1660] the practice of appointing two Secretaries of State, which was well established before the Civil War, was resumed. Apart from the modifications which were made necessary by the occasional existence of a third secretaryship, the organisation of the secretariat underwent no fundamental change from that time until the reforms of 1782 which resulted in the emergence of the Home and Foreign departments. ... English domestic affairs remained the responsibility of both Secretaries throughout the period. In the field of foreign affairs there was a division into a Northern and a Southern Department, each of which was the responsibility of one Secretary. The distinction between the two departments emerged only gradually. It was not until after 1689 that their names passed into general currency. Nevertheless the division of foreign business itself can, in its broad outlines, be detected in the early years of the reign of Charles II.}} A formal division, in the form of the offices of the secretary of state for the Northern Department and the secretary of state for the Southern Department, was made in 1689, though the office had been first divided into the Northern and Southern Department purviews in 1660.{{rp|p.30}}
=After the Union=
In 1782, the responsibilities of these offices were changed, so that one would be responsible for foreign affairs and one for domestic affairs, thus establishing the embryonic offices of foreign secretary and home secretary. Over time, the number of secretaries of states grew, so that there were five in 1900 and 14 by 1996. There are currently 16 secretaries of state.{{Cite web |title=Ministers |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers |access-date=31 March 2021 |website=gov.uk}}
Secretaries of state currently in use
{{also|List of government ministers of the United Kingdom}}
Secretaries of state no longer in use
=Health, education, work, business, energy, environment, transport and the regions=
The secretaries of state that have been used for the matters of health, education, work, business, energy, environment, transport and the regions are shown in the graphic below. It shows how portfolios of responsibilities have been broadly passed down from one secretary of state position to the position(s) directly below it. However, it is impossible for such a graphic to be completely accurate; it cannot show smaller changes, or gains or losses of responsibilities within a position due to changes of responsibilities for the UK Government (for example, due to devolution or Brexit). It is not to scale. In the gaps, and before the first of these secretaries of state, relevant responsibilities were taken on by ministers not titled 'Secretary of State'.
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |
| style="border-width:1px 0 0 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1963
| style="border-width:1px 0 0 1px;border-color:white;" | | style="border-width:1px 0 0 1px;border-color:white;" | | style="border-width:1px 0 0 1px;border-color:white;" | | style="border-width:1px 0 0 1px;border-color:white;" | | style="border-width:1px 0 0 1px;border-color:white;" | | colspan="7" | Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development (1963–64) | style="border-width:1px 1px 0 0;border-color:white;" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1964
| style="border-width:1px 1px 0 1px;border-color:white;" | | style="border-width:1px 0 0 1px;border-color:white;" | | style="border-width:1px 0 0 1px;border-color:white;" | | rowspan="10" colspan="2" style="background: #b7e690;"| Secretary of State for Education and Science (1964–1992) | colspan="8" style="border-width:0 1px 0 0;border-color:white;" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1968
| rowspan="8" colspan="2" | Secretary of State for Health and Social Services (1968–1988) | rowspan="2" style="background:#CCCCFF;"| Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity (1968–1970) | colspan="8" style="border-width:0 1px 0 0;border-color:white;" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1969
| colspan="3" style="border-width:0 0 1px 1px" | | colspan="1" style="border-width:0 0 0 0" | | colspan="2" style="border-width:0 1px 1px 0" | | style="background:#FBCEB1" | Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning (1969–70) | style="border-width:1px 1px 0 0;border-color:white;" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1970
| rowspan="8" style="background:#CCCCFF;"| Secretary of State for Employment (1970–1995) | colspan="3" style="background:#ffdead;" | Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1970–74) | style="border-width:0 1px 0 0" | | rowspan="2" colspan="3" style="border-width:0 0 0 0" | | rowspan="2" style="border-width:1px 1px 1px 0" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1974
| rowspan="4" style="background:#ffdead;" | Secretary of State for Industry (1974–1983) | rowspan="2" style="border-width:0 0 1px 0;border-color:#ffdead;background:#ffdead;" | Secretary of State for Trade (1974–83) | rowspan="2" style="background:#ffdead;" | Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection (1974–1979) | rowspan="6" style="background:#CEE0F2"| Secretary of State for Energy (1974–1992) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1976
| colspan="3" style="border-width:0 0 0 0" | Secretary of State for the Environment (1970–1997) | style="background:lightgrey" | Secretary of State for Transport (1976–1979) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1979
| rowspan="2" style="border-width:0 0 0 0;border-color:#ffdead;background:#ffdead;" | | rowspan="2" style="border-width:0 0 0 1px;border-color:#ffdead;background:#ffdead;" | | colspan="2" style="border-width:0 0 0 1px" | | colspan="2" style="border-width:0 1px 0 0" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1981
| rowspan="5" colspan="3" style="border-width:0 1px 1px 1px" | | rowspan="5" style="background:lightgrey" | Secretary of State for Transport (1981–1997) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1983
| rowspan="2" colspan="3" style="border-width:0 0 1px 1px;border-color:#ffdead;background:#ffdead;" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1988
| rowspan="15" style="background:#FFCCCC;" | Secretary of State for Health (1988–2018) | rowspan="4" style="border-width:0 0 1px 0;border-color:#CCCCFF;background:#CCCCFF;" | Secretary of State for Social Security (1988–2001) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1992
| colspan="2" style="background:#b7e690;" | Secretary of State for Education (1992–1995) | rowspan="8" colspan="4" style="background:#ffdead;" | Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1983–2007) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1995
| rowspan="2" colspan="3" style="border-width:0 0 1px 0;border-color:white"| Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1995–2001) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 1997
| rowspan="1" colspan="4" style="border-width:1px 1px 0 1px;" | Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1997–2001) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" |
| style="background:#CCCCFF;" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2001
| rowspan="14" colspan="2" style="border-width:3px 3px 3px 3px;border-color:black;background:#CCCCFF;" | Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (2001–present) | rowspan="4" colspan="2" style="background:#b7e690;" | Secretary of State for Education and Skills (2001–2007) | rowspan="5" colspan="2" style="border-width:3px 3px 0 3px;border-color:black"| Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2001–present) | colspan="2" style="border-width:1px 1px 0 0" | Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (2001–02) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" |
| style="border-width:0 0 1px 1px;" | | style="border-width:0 1px 1px 0;" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2002
| | rowspan="12" style="border-width:3px 3px 3px 3px;border-color:black;background:lightgrey" | Secretary of State for Transport (2002–present) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2006
| rowspan="7" style="background:#FBCEB1" | Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (2006–18) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2007
| rowspan="4" style="background:#b7e690;" | Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (2007–10) | rowspan="3" style="background:#b7e690;" | Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills (2007–2009) | colspan="4" style="border-width:0 0 1px 1px;border-color:#ffdead;background:#ffdead;" | Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (2007–2009) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" |
| style="border-color:#ffdead;background:#ffdead;" | | style="border-color:#ffdead;background:#ffdead;" | | style="border-color:#ffdead;background:#ffdead;" | | style="background:#ffdead;" | | style="border-width:0 0 3px 3px;border-color:black" | | style="border-width:0 3px 0 0;border-color:black" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2008
| colspan="3" style="border-width:1px 0 1px 0;border-color:#a1a9b1;background:#ffdead;" | | rowspan="3" colspan="2" style="background:#CEE0F2"| Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (2008–2016) | rowspan="8" style="border-width:0 3px 3px 3px;border-color:black" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2009
| rowspan="2" colspan="4" | Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (2009–2016) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2010
| style="border-width:3px 3px 0 0;border-color:black;background:#b7e690;" | |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2016
| style="border-width:0 0 0 0;border-color:black;background:#b7e690;" | | style="border-width:3px 3px 0 0;border-color:black;background:#b7e690;" | | rowspan="3" style="border-width:0 0 0 0;border-color:black;background:#ffdead" | Secretary of State for International Trade (2016–2023) | rowspan="3" colspan="4" | Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2016–2023) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2018
| rowspan="4" style="border-width:3px 3px 3px 3px;border-color:black;background:#FFCCCC;" | Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (2018–present) | rowspan="5" colspan="2" style="border-width:0 3px 3px 0;border-color:black;background:#b7e690;" | Secretary of State for Education (2010–present) | style="border-width:0;border-color:black;background:#FBCEB1" | Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (2018–2021) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2021
| rowspan="2" style="border-width:0;border-color:black;background:#FBCEB1" | Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (2021–2024) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2023
| rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="border-width:3px;border-color:black;background:#ffdead" | Secretary of State for Business and Trade (2023–present) | rowspan="2" style="border-width:3px;border-color:black" |Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (2023–present) | rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="border-width:3px;border-color:black;background:#CEE0F2"| Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (2023–present) |
| style="border-width:1px 0 1px 1px;border-color:white;vertical-align:top;" | 2024
| rowspan="2" style="border-width:3px;border-color:black;background:#FBCEB1" | Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (2024–present) |
Key:
| class="wikitable" |
| style="background:#FFCCCC;width:20px" |
| Secretary of state primarily relating to health |
| style="background:#CCCCFF;"|
| Secretary of state primarily relating to work and benefits |
| style="background:#b7e690;"|
| Secretary of state primarily relating to education |
| style="background:#ffdead;"|
| Secretary of state primarily relating to business |
| style="background:#CEE0F2" |
| Secretary of state primarily relating to energy |
| style="background:#FBCEB1" |
| Secretary of state primarily relating to the regions |
| style="background:lightgrey;"|
| Secretary of state primarily relating to transport |
| | Secretary of state covering more than one of these areas |
| style="border-width:3px 3px 3px 3px;border-color:black" |
| Secretary of state currently in use |
=Culture=
The Secretaries of state that have been used for culture, heritage and sport are as follows:
| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" |
| Secretary of State for National Heritage (1992–1997) |
| Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1997–2010) |
| Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (2010–2012) |
| Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (2012–2017) |
| Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (2017–2023) |
| style="border-width:3px 3px 3px 3px;border-color:black;" | Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (2023–present) |