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The Spanish government departments, commonly known as Ministries, are the main bodies through which the Government of Spain exercise its executive authority. They are also the top level of the General State Administration. The ministerial departments and their organization are created by the Prime Minister and all of them are headed by a Cabinet member called Minister.

Although the main organization is established by the Premier, the Ministers have autonomy to organize its own department and to appoint the high-ranking officials of the ministries. It exist the possibility of ministers without portfolio, which are minister-level officials entrusted with an specific task and they do not head a department.

There are currently 17 ministerial departments.

Ministers

The Ministers or Government Ministers (historically Ministers of the Crown) are, after the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Ministers, the highest officals of the State Administration and together they form the Goverment of the Nation, which main decision-making-body is the Council of Ministers.

Appointment and dismissal

The ministers are appointed and dismissed by the Monarch at the proposal of the President of the Government.^[1]

Both appointment and dismissal, to be effective, must to be published at the Official State Gazette, although exists some specific cases, previous to the approval of the 1997 Government Act, which dismissal was not published. Those cases are Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado, minister without portfolio between 1976 and 1977 and Francisco Fernández Ordóñez, Minister of Justice from 1980 to 1981.^[2]

Unlike the portfolio ministers, the dismissal of ministers without portfolio entails the extinction of all the ministerial structure that supports it.

Responsibilities

According to the Government Act, the ministers, as heads of their departments, have competence and responsibility in the specific sphere of their actions, and they are responsible for exercising the following functions:^[1]

To develop the action of the Government within the scope of its department, in accordance with the agreements adopted in the Council of Ministers or with the orders of the Prime Minister.
To exercise the regulatory power in the matters specific to his department.
To exercise the powers attributed to them by laws, the rules of organization and functioning of the Government and any other norm.
To countersign, when necessary, the acts of the Sovereign in the sphere of its responsibilities.

The ministers, as members of the Government, meet in the following collective bodies:

The Council of Ministers.
The Government Delegated Commissions.

Substitutions

The substitution of the ministers must be determined by a Royal Decree of the Prime Minister, and always has to fall on another member of the Government. The Royal Decree must express the cause and character of the substitution.^[1]

The only substitution that has taken place since the entry into force of the 1997 Government Act has been that of the Minister of Defense in May 2008. Minister Carme Chacón used her right to maternity leave and her responsabilities were temporary assumed by the Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba.^[3]

Minister without portfolio

These have been the ministers without portfolio that have existed since the transition to democracy:^[2]

Portfolio	Name and term
Deputy Minister for the Regions	Manuel Clavero Arévalo (4 July 1977 - 5 April 1979)
Deputy Minister for Relations with the Cortes	Ignacio Camuñas Solís (4 July 1977 - 29 September 1977) Rafael Arias-Salgado y Montalvo (5 April 1979 - 17 January 1980)
Minister for Relations with the European Communities	Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo (10 de febrero de 1978 - 8 de septiembre de 1980) Eduardo Punset (8 de septiembre de 1980 - 26 de febrero de 1981)
Minister attached to the Prime Minister	Joaquín Garrigues Walker (5 April 1979 - 2 May 1980) Rafael Arias-Salgado y Montalvo (17 January 1980 - 2 May 1980) Pío Cabanillas Gallas (8 September 1980 - 26 February 1981) Jaime Lamo de Espinosa (1 December 1981 - 29 July 1982)
Deputy Minister for Public Administration	Sebastián Martín-Retortillo (2 May 1980 - 26 February 1981)
Deputy Minister for Legislative Coordination	Juan Antonio Ortega y Díaz-Ambrona (2 May 1980 - 8 September 1980)
Minister-Spokesperson of the Government	Pío Cabanillas Alonso (27 April 2000^[4] - 10 July 2002^[5])

Internal organization

Ministries may have Secretariats of State and, exceptionally, General Secretariats (with rank of undersecretariat) for the management of a sector of administrative activity. The executive bodies that are assigned to them are hierarchically dependent on them. The ministries have, in any case, an Undersecretariat and, depending on it, a General Technical Secretariat for the management of common services (HR, budget, assets, websites, security...).

On the other hand are the Directorates-General, which are the management bodies of one or several functionally homogeneous areas. The directorates-general are organized in deputy directorates-general for the management of the competences entrusted to it. However, deputy directorates-general may be directly attached to other higher level management bodies or to higher bodies of the ministry.

Creation, modification and suppression

Before of the approval of the 1997 Government Act, the Ministries and Secretariats of State had to be created by law, normally by a direct law passed by the Government in the form of Royal Decree-Law. After, the Governement Act allowed the Prime Minister to aprove a Royal Decree (secondary legislation) designing the government structure.

Currently, the Prime Minister only creates the Ministries and some of the highest bodies (like secretariats of State and Undersecretariats) while the principal internal organization is delegated into the ministers, which develop the structure of the bodies created by the Premier or create new ones. The order of the Minister is also a royal decree signed the Monarch and countersigned by the minister responsible for the public administration at the proposal of the competent minister.

The lowest bodies such as deputy directorates-general are created by a Ministerial Order (ranked below the royal decree) of the competent minister.

Hierarchy

The ministers are the superior heads of the department and direct hierarchical superiors of the secretaries of State. The executive bodies depend on the previous ones and they are hierarchically ordered among themselves in the following way: undersecretary, director general and deputy director general. The general secretaries have the rank of undersecretary and the technical general secretaries have the rank of director general.

Ministerial hierarchy:

Minister.
- Secretaries of State.
  - Undersecretaries and General Secretaries.
    - Directors general and technical general secretaries.
      - Deputy directors general.

Current ministries

On 6 June 2018, Prime Minister Sánchez announced his ministers which assumed their offices on June 7.^[6]

Portfolio	Minister	First creation	Current name	Address	Website
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food	Luis Planas Puchades	1900	1981	Paseo de la Infanta Isabel 1 Madrid	www.mapa.gob.es
Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation	Josep Borrell Fontelles	1714	2018	Plaza de la Provincia, 1 Madrid	www.exteriores.gob.es
Science, Innovation and Universities	Pedro Francisco Duque	1979	2018	Paseo de la Castellana 162 Madrid	www.ciencia.gob.es
Culture and Sport	José Guirao Cabrera	1977	2018	Plaza del Rey 1 Madrid	www.culturaydeporte.gob.es
Defence	Margarita Robles Fernández	1705	1977	Paseo de la Castellana 109 Madrid	www.defensa.gob.es
Economy and Business	Nadia María Calviño Santamaria	1928	2018	Paseo de la Castellana 162 Madrid	www.mineco.gob.es
Education and Vocational Training	María Isabel Celaá Diéguez	1900	2018	Calle de Alcalá 34 Madrid	www.educacionyfp.gob.es
Development	José Luis Ábalos Meco	1832	1996	Paseo de la Castellana 67 Madrid	www.fomento.gob.es
Finance	María Jesús Montero	1705	1851	Calle de Alcalá 5 Madrid	www.hacienda.gob.es
Industry, Trade and Tourism	María Reyes Maroto Illera	1933	1991	Paseo de la Castellana 160 Madrid	www.mincotur.gob.es
Interior	Fernando Grande-Marlaska	1812	1977	Calle Amador de los Ríos 7 Madrid	www.interior.gob.es
Justice	Dolores Delgado García	1714	1931	Calle de San Bernardo 45 Madrid	www.mjusticia.gob.es
Territorial Policy and Civil Service	Meritxell Batet Lamaña	1979	2018	Paseo de la Castellana 3 Madrid	www.seat.mpr.gob.es
Presidency, Relations with the Cortes and Equality	María del Carmen Calvo Poyato	1951	2018	Avenida Puerta de Hierro Madrid	www.mpr.gob.es
Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare	María Luisa Carcedo	1936	2018	Paseo del Prado 18 Madrid	www.mscbs.gob.es
Labour, Migrations and Social Security	Magdalena Valerio	1920	2018	Paseo de la Castellana 63 Madrid	www.mitramiss.gob.es
Ecological Transition	Teresa Ribera	1996	2018	Plaza de San Juan de la Cruz Madrid	www.miteco.gob.es