Secretary of State for Business and Trade
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Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | |
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since 14 July 2016 | |
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | |
Style | Business Secretary (informal) The Right Honourable (within the UK and the Commonwealth) |
Appointer | The Monarch on advice of the Prime Minister |
Formation |
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First holder | Edward Heath as Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development |
Website | www.gov.uk |
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Politics of the United Kingdom |
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Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DEBEIS), or informally Business Secretary, is a cabinet position in the United Kingdom government. The office is responsible for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (formerly the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and previous to that the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. The secretary of state was, until July 2016, also President of the Board of Trade when that position was transferred to the newly created post of Secretary of State for International Trade.[1]
History
During the government of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the then President of the Board of Trade Edward Heath was given in addition the job of Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development. This title was not continued under Harold Wilson, but when Heath became Prime Minister in 1970 he decided to merge functions of the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Technology to create the Department of Trade and Industry. The head of this department became known as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and also retained the title of President of the Board of Trade.
When Harold Wilson re-entered office in March 1974, the office was split into the Department of Trade, the Department of Industry and the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection, resulting in the creation of three new positions: Secretary of State for Industry, Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection, and Secretary of State for Trade. The title President of the Board of Trade became the secondary title of the Secretary of State for Trade. In 1979 the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection was abolished by the incoming Conservative government and its responsibilities were reintegrated into the Department of Trade. In 1983 the offices of trade and industry were remerged and the title of Secretary of State for Trade and Industry was recreated. When Michael Heseltine held this office, he preferred to be known by the older title of President of the Board of Trade, and this practice was also followed by Ian Lang and Margaret Beckett. Heseltine's decision to reuse the old title caused some comment and it was discovered that the Board of Trade had not in fact met since the mid-nineteenth century.
Under Gordon Brown's premiership there were two renamings of the role and three re-alignments of responsibility. In his first cabinet of 2007, he called the post Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. In this change, the Better Regulation Executive was added to the department but the Office of Science and Innovation was lost. In 2008, the title remained the same but responsibility for energy was lost. In 2009, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was merged into the existing department and the post became Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
In July 2016, Prime Minister Theresa May decided to merge the Department for Energy and Climate Change into this department with the responsibilities for post-19 education and skills being returned to the Department for Education resulting in the position being renamed to Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. At the same time the post of President of the Board of Trade was transferred to the newly created post of Secretary of State for International Trade.
List of Secretaries of State
Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development (1963–1964)
Name | Portrait | Took office | Left office | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Edward Heath | 20 October 1963 | 16 October 1964 | Conservative | style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Alec Douglas-Home |
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1970–1974)
Name | Portrait | Took office | Left office | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | John Davies | 15 October 1970 | 5 November 1972 | Conservative | rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Edward Heath | |
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Peter Walker | 5 November 1972 | 4 March 1974 |
Secretaries of State for Industry; Prices; and Trade (1974–1983)
Secretary of State for Industry |
Secretary of State for Trade |
Political party | Prime Minister | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Took office | Left office | Name | Took office | Left office | Name | Took office | Left office | ||||||
height="14%" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Tony Benn | 5 March 1974 | 10 June 1975 | height="28%" rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Shirley Williams | 5 March 1974 | 10 September 1976 | height="23%" rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Peter Shore | 5 March 1974 | 8 April 1976 | Labour | rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Harold Wilson |
height="42%" rowspan="4" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Eric Varley | 10 June 1975 | 4 May 1979 | |||||||||||
height="28%" rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Edmund Dell | 8 April 1976 | 11 November 1978 | Labour | rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | James Callaghan | ||||||||
height="28%" rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Roy Hattersley | 10 September 1976 | 4 May 1979 | |||||||||||
height="5%" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | John Smith | 11 November 1978 | 4 May 1979 | |||||||||||
height="25%" rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Keith Joseph | 4 May 1979 | 14 September 1981 | OFFICE ABOLISHED (responsibilities returned to the Trade Secretary) |
height="18%" style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | John Nott | 5 May 1979 | 5 January 1981 | Conservative | rowspan="4" style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Margaret Thatcher | |||
height="13%" rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | John Biffen | 5 January 1981 | 6 April 1982 | |||||||||||
height="19%" rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Patrick Jenkin | 14 September 1981 | 12 June 1983 | |||||||||||
height="13%" style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | The Lord Cockfield | 6 April 1982 | 12 June 1983 |
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1983–2007)
Name | Portrait | Took office | Left office | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Cecil Parkinson | 12 June 1983 | 11 October 1983 | Conservative | rowspan="7" style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Margaret Thatcher | |
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Norman Tebbit | 16 October 1983 | 2 September 1985 | ||||
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Leon Brittan | 2 September 1985 | 22 January 1986 | ||||
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Paul Channon | 24 January 1986 | 13 June 1987 | ||||
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | The Lord Young of Graffham | 13 June 1987 | 24 July 1989 | ||||
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Nicholas Ridley | 24 July 1989 | 13 July 1990 | ||||
rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Peter Lilley | 14 July 1990 | 10 April 1992 | ||||
Conservative | rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | John Major | |||||
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Michael Heseltine† | 10 April 1992 | 5 July 1995 | ||||
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Ian Lang† | 5 July 1995 | 2 May 1997 | ||||
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Margaret Beckett† | 2 May 1997 | 27 July 1998 | Labour | rowspan="6" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Tony Blair | |
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Peter Mandelson | 27 July 1998 | 23 December 1998 | ||||
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Stephen Byers | 23 December 1998 | 8 June 2001 | ||||
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Patricia Hewitt | 8 June 2001 | 6 May 2005 | ||||
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Alan Johnson†† | 6 May 2005 | 5 May 2006 | ||||
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Alistair Darling | 5 May 2006 | 27 June 2007 |
† — Primarily referred to as President of the Board of Trade, and not as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
†† — Alan Johnson was initially announced on 6 May 2005, after the general election, as being "Secretary of State for Productivity, Energy and Industry and President of the Board of Trade", but after just a week, on 13 May, it was declared that the new title would not be used, after widespread derision of the new name, because the abbreviation for Johnson's title, Productivity, Energy and Industry Secretary, would have been "PENIS"[2]
Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (2007–2009)
Name | Portrait | Took office | Left office | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | John Hutton | 28 June 2007 | 3 October 2008 | Labour | rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Gordon Brown | |
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | The Lord Mandelson | 3 October 2008 | 5 June 2009 |
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (2009–2016)
Name | Portrait | Took office | Left office | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | The Lord Mandelson | 5 June 2009 | 11 May 2010 | Labour | style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Gordon Brown | |
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Democrats (UK)/meta/color" | | Vince Cable | 12 May 2010 | 8 May 2015 | Liberal Democrats | style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | David Cameron (Coalition) | |
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Sajid Javid | 11 May 2015 | 14 July 2016 | Conservative | style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | David Cameron (II) |
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (since 2016)
Name | Portrait | Took office | Left office | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Greg Clark | 14 July 2016 | Incumbent | Conservative | style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | Theresa May |
References
- ^ "Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade - GOV.UK".
- ^ "Profile: Alan Johnson". The Telegraph. 18 June 2005.