| United Kingdom Secretary of State for Transport | |
|---|---|
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| Department for Transport | |
| Style | Transport Secretary (informal) The Right Honourable (within the UK and Commonwealth) |
| 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 | Eric Campbell Geddes (as Minister of Transport) |
| Salary | £159,038 per annum(2022)[1] (including £86,584MP salary)[2] |
| Website | www |
Thesecretary of state for transport, also referred to as thetransport secretary, is asecretary of state in theGovernment of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of theDepartment for Transport.[3] The incumbent is a member of theCabinet of the United Kingdom.
The office holder works alongside the othertransport ministers. The correspondingshadow minister is theshadow secretary of state for transport, and the secretary of state is also scrutinised by theTransport Select Committee.[4]
The position of secretary of state for transport is held byHeidi Alexander, who was appointed byKeir Starmer following the resignation ofLouise Haigh.
The Ministry of Transport absorbed theMinistry of Shipping and was renamed the Ministry of War Transport in 1941, but resumed its previous name at the end of the war.[5]
The Ministry of Civil Aviation was created byWinston Churchill in 1944 to look at peaceful ways of usingaircraft and to find something for the aircraft factories to do after the war.[6] The new Conservative government in 1951 appointed the same minister to both Transport and Civil Aviation, finally amalgamating the ministries on 1 October 1953.[7]
The Ministry was renamed back to the Ministry of Transport on 14 October 1959, when a separateMinistry of Aviation was formed.
Transport responsibilities were subsumed by the Department for the Environment, headed by thesecretary of state for the environment from 15 October 1970 to 10 September 1976.
TheDepartment for Transport was recreated as a separate department byJames Callaghan in 1976.[8]
The super-departmentDepartment of the Environment, Transport and the Regions was created in 1997 forDeputy Prime MinisterJohn Prescott.
In 2001, theDepartment of the Environment, Transport and the Regions was widely considered unwieldy and so was broken up,[9] with the Transport functions now combined with Local Government and the Regions in theDTLR (Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions).
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative Labour National Labour Liberal National Liberal
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative Labour National Liberal
| Minister of Transport | Minister of Civil Aviation | Term of office | Political party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
_(Frederick_Leathers).jpg) | Frederick Leathers, 1st Viscount Leathers (Min. of War Transport) | — | 1 May 1941 | 26 July 1945 | Conservative | Winston Churchill (War Coalition) | ||
| Philip Cunliffe-Lister, Viscount Swinton | 8 October 1944 | 26 July 1945 | Conservative | |||||
 | Alfred Barnes | Reginald Fletcher, 1st Baron Winster | 3–4 August 1945 | 4 October 1946 | Labour | Clement Attlee | ||
| Harry Nathan, 1st Baron Nathan | 4 October 1946 | 31 May 1948 | Labour | |||||
| Francis Pakenham, Lord Pakenham | 31 May 1948 | 1 June 1951 | Labour | |||||
| David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore | 1 June 1951 | 26 October 1951 | Labour | |||||
| Hon. John Maclay | 31 October 1951 | 7 May 1952 | National Liberal | Winston Churchill | ||||
 | Alan Lennox-Boyd | 7 May 1952 | 1 October 1953 | Conservative | ||||
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative
| Minister | Term of office | Political party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alan Lennox-Boyd | 1 October 1953 | 28 July 1954 | Conservative | Winston Churchill | ||
| John Boyd-Carpenter | 28 July 1954 | 20 December 1955 | Conservative | ||||
| Harold Watkinson | 20 December 1955 | 14 October 1959 | Conservative | Anthony Eden | |||
| Harold Macmillan | |||||||
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative Labour
| Minister | Term of office | Political party | Prime Minister | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ernest Marples | 14 October 1959 | 16 October 1964 | Conservative | Harold Macmillan | ||
| Alec Douglas-Home | ||||||
| Thomas Fraser | 16 October 1964 | 23 December 1965 | Labour | Harold Wilson | ||
| Barbara Castle | 23 December 1965 | 6 April 1968 | Labour | |||
| Richard Marsh | 6 April 1968 | 6 October 1969 | Labour | |||
| Fred Mulley[10] | 6 October 1969 | 22 June 1970 | Labour | |||
| John Peyton[11] | 23 June 1970 | 14 October 1970 | Conservative | Edward Heath | ||
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative Labour
| Minister | Term of office | Length of Term | Political party | Prime Minister | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter Walker | 15 October 1970 | 5 November 1972 | 2 years | Conservative | Edward Heath | ||
| Geoffrey Rippon | 5 November 1972 | 4 March 1974 | 1 year, 3 months | Conservative | |||
| Anthony Crosland | 5 March 1974 | 8 April 1976 | 2 years, 1 month | Labour | Harold Wilson | ||
The junior ministers responsible for transport within the Department for the Environment:
Colour key (for political parties):
Labour
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Length of Term | Political party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Bill Rodgers[13] | 10 September 1976 | 4 May 1979 | 2 years, 7 months | Labour | James Callaghan | ||
Not an official member of thecabinet.
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative
| Minister | Term of office | Length of Term | Political party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Norman Fowler[14] | 11 May 1979 | 5 January 1981 | 1 year, 7 months | Conservative | Margaret Thatcher | ||
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Length of Term | Political party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norman Fowler[14] | 5 January 1981 | 14 September 1981 | 8 months | Conservative | Margaret Thatcher | ||
 | David Howell[15] | 14 September 1981 | 11 June 1983 | 1 year, 8 months | Conservative | |||
 | Tom King[16] | 11 June 1983 | 16 October 1983 | 4 months | Conservative | |||
 | Hon. Nicholas Ridley | 16 October 1983 | 21 May 1986 | 2 years, 7 months | Conservative | |||
 | John Moore[17] | 21 May 1986 | 13 June 1987 | 1 year | Conservative | |||
| Paul Channon | 13 June 1987 | 24 July 1989 | 2 years, 1 month | Conservative | |||
| Cecil Parkinson[18] | 24 July 1989 | 28 November 1990 | 1 year, 4 months | Conservative | |||
.jpg) | Malcolm Rifkind[19] | 28 November 1990 | 10 April 1992 | 2 years, 8 months | Conservative | John Major | ||
 | John MacGregor[20] | 11 April 1992 | 20 July 1994 | 2 years, 3 months | Conservative | |||
| Brian Mawhinney[21] | 20 July 1994 | 5 July 1995 | 11 months | Conservative | |||
 | Sir George Young, 6th Baronet[22] | 5 July 1995 | 2 May 1997 | 1 year, 9 months | Conservative | |||
Colour key (for political parties):
Labour
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Length of Term | Political party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Prescott[23] MP forKingston upon Hull West and Hessle |  | 2 May 1997 | 7 June 2001 | 4 years, 1 month | Labour | Tony Blair | ||
Colour key (for political parties):
Labour
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Length of Term | Political party | Prime Minister | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen Byers[24] MP forNorth Tyneside | 8 June 2001 | 28 May 2002 | 11 months | Labour | Tony Blair | ||
After Byers' resignation, such a division was made, with the portfolios of Local Government and the Regions transferred to theOffice of the Deputy Prime Minister.
During the lifetime of DTLGR,John Spellar served as Minister of State for Transport with a right to attend Cabinet.
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative Labour
This oral evidence session will examine the work and responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Transport and the Department for Transport.
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)Headquarters: Great Minster House, 33Horseferry Road,London | |
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