Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

"Culture Secretary" redirects here. For the Scottish Government culture secretary, see Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs.

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Royal Arms of HM Government
Incumbent Nadine Dorries since 15 September 2021
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Style	Culture Secretary (informal) The Right Honourable (within the UK and the Commonwealth)
Status	Secretary of state Minister of the Crown
Appointer	The Monarch on advice of the Prime Minister
Formation	11 April 1992
First holder	David Mellor
Website	www.culture.gov.uk

The secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, also referred to as the culture secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for strategy and policy across the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, 21st in the ministerial ranking. The office has been dubbed "Minister of Fun".

On 15 September 2021, Boris Johnson appointed Nadine Dorries to the office.

Responsibilities

The secretary has overall responsibility for strategy and policy across the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Responsibilities include:

• Arts and Culture
• Broadcasting
• Creative industries
• Creative Industries Council
• Cultural property, heritage and the historic environment
• Cultural Renewal Taskforce
• Culture, sports and arts sector recovery from COVID-19
• Gambling and racing
• Libraries
• Media ownership and mergers
• Museums and galleries
• The National Lottery
• Sport
• Telecommunications and online
• Tourism

History

The office was created in 1992 by Prime Minister John Major, as Secretary of State for National Heritage. In his autobiography, Major says that, before the office was created, responsibility for cultural interests was shared among various departments, but important to none of them. For instance, arts and libraries, although a separate department, had no minister in the Cabinet, sport was part of the Department for Education, film was part of the Department of Trade and Industry, broadcasting was part of the Home Office, tourism was part of the Department for Employment and heritage was part of the Department of the Environment. He also wrote that the system tended to favour the interests of the articulate and well-connected London-based arts lobby.

Thus, when he became Prime Minister, Major said that he saw that the only way to give culture and sport the higher profile that he thought that they deserved was to establish a new department, under a minister of Cabinet rank, to bring together all aspects of the arts, sport and heritage.

List of Secretaries of State

Secretaries of State for National Heritage (1992–1997)

Secretary of State for National Heritage

Portrait		Name	Term of office		Party	Prime Minister
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		David Mellor MP for Putney	11 April 1992	22 September 1992	Conservative	rowspan=4 style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	John Major
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Peter Brooke MP for Cities of London and Westminster	25 September 1992	20 July 1994	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Stephen Dorrell MP for Loughborough	20 July 1994	5 July 1995	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Virginia Bottomley MP for South West Surrey	5 July 1995	2 May 1997	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Chris Smith MP for Islington South and Finsbury	2 May 1997	22 July 1997	Labour	rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	Tony Blair

Secretaries of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1997–2010)

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Portrait		Name	Term of office		Party	Prime Minister
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Chris Smith MP for Islington South and Finsbury	22 July 1997	8 June 2001	Labour	rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	Tony Blair
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Tessa Jowell MP for Dulwich and West Norwood	8 June 2001	27 June 2007	Labour
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |		James Purnell MP for Stalybridge and Hyde	28 June 2007	24 January 2008	Labour	rowspan=3 style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	Gordon Brown
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Andy Burnham MP for Leigh	24 January 2008	5 June 2009	Labour
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Ben Bradshaw MP for Exeter	5 June 2009	11 May 2010	Labour

Secretaries of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (2010–2012)

Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport

Portrait		Name	Term of office		Party	Prime Minister
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Jeremy Hunt MP for South West Surrey	12 May 2010	4 September 2012	Conservative	style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	David Cameron (I)

Secretaries of State for Culture, Media and Sport (2012–2017)

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Portrait		Name	Term of office		Party	Prime Minister
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Maria Miller MP for Basingstoke	4 September 2012	9 April 2014	Conservative	rowspan=3 style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	David Cameron (I)
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Sajid Javid MP for Bromsgrove	9 April 2014	11 May 2015	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		John Whittingdale MP for Maldon	11 May 2015	14 July 2016	Conservative	David Cameron (II)
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Karen Bradley MP for Staffordshire Moorlands	14 July 2016	3 July 2017	Conservative	style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	Theresa May (I)

Secretaries of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (2017–present)

In 2017 the DCMS was renamed to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in acknowledgement of the increasing responsibility the department had gained for Digital affairs. Karen Bradley continued as Secretary of State for the department.

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Portrait		Name	Term of office		Party	Prime Minister
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Karen Bradley MP for Staffordshire Moorlands	3 July 2017	8 January 2018	Conservative	rowspan=3 style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	Theresa May (II)
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Matt Hancock MP for West Suffolk	8 January 2018	8 July 2018	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Jeremy Wright MP for Kenilworth and Southam	9 July 2018	24 July 2019	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		The Baroness Morgan of Cotes MP for Loughborough (until 2019)	24 July 2019	13 February 2020	Conservative	rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	Boris Johnson
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |		Oliver Dowden MP for Hertsmere	13 February 2020	Incumbent	Conservative

See also

• Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
• Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee