| United Kingdom Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport | |
|---|---|
since 5 July 2024 | |
| Department for Culture, Media and Sport | |
| Style |
|
| Type | Minister of the Crown |
| Status | Secretary of State |
| Member of | |
| Reports to | The Prime Minister |
| Seat | Westminster |
| Nominator | The Prime Minister |
| Appointer | The Monarch (on the advice of thePrime Minister) |
| Term length | At His Majesty's Pleasure |
| Formation |
|
| First holder | David Mellor (as Secretary of State for National Heritage) |
| Salary | £159,038 per annum (2022)[1] (including £86,584MP salary)[2] |
| Website | Department for Culture, Media and Sport |
Thesecretary of state for culture, media and sport, also referred to as theculture secretary, is asecretary of state in theGovernment of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for strategy and policy across theDepartment for Culture, Media and Sport.[3] The incumbent is a member of theCabinet of the United Kingdom. The office has been dubbed "Minister of Fun".[4]
The secretary has overall responsibility for strategy and policy across theDepartment for Culture, Media and Sport.[3] Responsibilities include:[3]
The office was created in 1992 byPrime MinisterJohn Major, as Secretary of State for National Heritage.[5] 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.[6] For instance, arts and libraries, although a separate department, had no minister in theCabinet, sport was part of theDepartment for Education, film was part of theDepartment of Trade and Industry, broadcasting was part of theHome Office, tourism was part of theDepartment for Employment and heritage was part of theDepartment of the Environment.[6] He also wrote that the system tended to favour the interests of the articulate and well-connectedLondon-based arts lobby.[6]
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.[7]
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Mellor MP forPutney | 11 April 1992 | 22 September 1992 | Conservative | John Major | |||
| Peter Brooke MP forCities of London and Westminster | 25 September 1992 | 20 July 1994 | Conservative | ||||
| Stephen Dorrell MP forLoughborough | 20 July 1994 | 5 July 1995 | Conservative | ||||
| Virginia Bottomley MP forSouth West Surrey | 5 July 1995 | 2 May 1997 | Conservative | ||||
| Chris Smith MP forIslington South and Finsbury | 2 May 1997 | 22 July 1997 | Labour | Tony Blair | |||
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Smith MP forIslington South and Finsbury | 22 July 1997 | 8 June 2001 | Labour | Tony Blair | |||
| Tessa Jowell MP forDulwich and West Norwood | 8 June 2001 | 27 June 2007 | Labour | ||||
| James Purnell MP forStalybridge and Hyde | 28 June 2007 | 24 January 2008 | Labour | Gordon Brown | |||
| Andy Burnham MP forLeigh | 24 January 2008 | 5 June 2009 | Labour | ||||
| Ben Bradshaw MP forExeter | 5 June 2009 | 11 May 2010 | Labour | ||||
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jeremy Hunt MP forSouth West Surrey | 12 May 2010 | 4 September 2012 | Conservative | David Cameron | |||
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maria Miller MP forBasingstoke | 4 September 2012 | 9 April 2014 | Conservative | David Cameron | |||
| Sajid Javid MP forBromsgrove | 9 April 2014 | 11 May 2015 | Conservative | ||||
| John Whittingdale MP forMaldon | 11 May 2015 | 14 July 2016 | Conservative | ||||
| Karen Bradley MP forStaffordshire Moorlands | 14 July 2016 | 3 July 2017 | Conservative | Theresa May | |||
| 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.[8]Karen Bradley continued as Secretary of State for the department. | |||||||
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karen Bradley MP forStaffordshire Moorlands | 3 July 2017 | 8 January 2018 | Conservative | Theresa May | |||
| Matt Hancock MP forWest Suffolk | 8 January 2018 | 8 July 2018 | Conservative | ||||
| Jeremy Wright MP forKenilworth and Southam | 9 July 2018 | 24 July 2019 | Conservative | ||||
| Nicky Morgan MP forLoughborough (until November 2019) Life peer (since January 2020) | 24 July 2019 | 13 February 2020 | Conservative | Boris Johnson | |||
| Oliver Dowden MP forHertsmere | 13 February 2020 | 15 September 2021 | Conservative | ||||
| Nadine Dorries MP forMid Bedfordshire | 15 September 2021 | 6 September 2022 | Conservative | ||||
| Michelle Donelan MP forChippenham | 6 September 2022 | 7 February 2023 | Conservative | Liz Truss | |||
| Rishi Sunak | |||||||
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucy Frazer MP forSouth East Cambridgeshire | 7 February 2023 | 5 July 2024 | Conservative | Rishi Sunak | |||
| Lisa Nandy MP forWigan | 5 July 2024 | Incumbent | Labour | Keir Starmer | |||
