| United Kingdom Secretary of State for Education | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
.jpg) | |
| Department for Education | |
| Style | Education 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 | William Cowper-Temple (as Vice-President of the Committee of the Council on Education) |
| Salary | £159,038 per annum(2022)[1] (including £86,584MP salary)[2] |
| Website | gov |
Thesecretary of state for education, also referred to as theeducation secretary, is asecretary of state in theGovernment of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of theDepartment for Education.[3] The incumbent is a member of theCabinet of the United Kingdom. As education is fully devolved to theScottish Government,Welsh Government andNorthern Ireland Executive, the post holder has no jurisdiction or influence in education policy or direction in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.[4] Therefore, the Cabinet Secretary for Education legislates on education matters only in England.
The office holder works alongside the otherEducation ministers. The correspondingshadow minister is theshadow secretary of state for education, and the work of the secretary of state is also scrutinised by theEducation Select Committee.[5]
The current education secretary isBridget Phillipson.
Corresponding to what is generally known as aneducation minister in many other countries, the education secretary's remit is concerned primarily withEngland. This includes:
A committee of thePrivy Council was appointed in 1839 to supervise the distribution of certain government grants in the education field.[7] The members of the committee were theLord President of the Council, theSecretaries of State, theFirst Lord of the Treasury, and theChancellor of the Exchequer. From 1857 a vice-president was appointed who took responsibility for policy.
On 1 April 1900, theBoard of Education Act 1899 abolished the committee and instituted a new board, headed by a president. The members were initially very similar to the old committee and the president of the board was the Lord President of the council; however, from 1902 this ceased to be the case and the president of the board was appointed separately (although the Marquess of Londonderry happened to hold both jobs from 1903 to 1905).
TheEducation Act 1944 replaced the Board of Education with a newMinistry of Education.
The position of Secretary of State for Education and Science was created in 1964 with the merger of the offices of Minister of Education and the Minister of Science. The postholder oversaw theDepartment of Education and Science.
From June 1970 to March 1974, this post was held by future prime minister Margaret Thatcher.[8]
In 1992, the responsibility forscience was transferred toCabinet Office's Office of Public Service, and the department was renamed Department of Education. In 1995 the department merged with theDepartment of Employment to become theDepartment for Education and Employment (DfEE) and in 2001 the employment functions were transferred to a newly createdDepartment for Work and Pensions, with the DfEE becoming the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). In 2007 under Gordon Brown's new premiership, the DfES was split into two new departments; the Department for Children, Schools and Families, and a Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, under two new secretaries of state.
The ministerial office of the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills was, in late 2009, amalgamated into the new ministerial office of the resurgent politicianPeter Mandelson, made a peer and given the title Lord Mandelson as the newly createdSecretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills – itself an amalgamation of the responsibilities of the Secretaries of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and Innovation, Universities and Skills. The Secretary of State has remit over higher education policy as well as British business and enterprise.
From 14 July 2016 to 8 January 2018 the post was held byJustine Greening, as her predecessor,Nicky Morgan, was sacked byTheresa May. Greening resigned after rejecting areshuffle to theDepartment for Work and Pensions.[9]
On 7 July 2022,Michelle Donelan became the shortest-serving cabinet member in British history, when she resigned as Education Secretary 35 hours after being appointed.[10]
Colour key (for political parties):
Whig Conservative Liberal
Colour key (for political parties):
Liberal Unionist Conservative Liberal Labour National Labour
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative Labour
| Minister | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | R. A. Butler[12] | 10 August 1944 | 25 May 1945 | Conservative | Winston Churchill (War Coalition) | ||
 | Richard Law | 25 May 1945 | 26 July 1945 | Conservative | Winston Churchill (Caretaker Min.) | ||
 | Ellen Wilkinson | 3 August 1945 | 6 February 1947 (died in office) | Labour | Clement Attlee | ||
 | George Tomlinson | 10 February 1947 | 26 October 1951 | Labour | |||
 | Florence Horsbrugh | 2 November 1951 | 18 October 1954 | Conservative | Winston Churchill | ||
 | David Eccles | 18 October 1954 | 13 January 1957 | Conservative | |||
| Anthony Eden | |||||||
 | Quintin Hogg | 13 January 1957 | 17 September 1957 | Conservative | Harold Macmillan | ||
| Geoffrey Lloyd | 17 September 1957 | 14 October 1959 | Conservative | |||
| David Eccles | 14 October 1959 | 13 July 1962 | Conservative | |||
| Edward Boyle, Baron Boyle of Handsworth | 13 July 1962 | 1 April 1964 | Conservative | |||
| Alec Douglas-Home | |||||||
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative Labour
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Quintin Hogg (formerly Viscount Hailsham) | 1 April 1964 | 16 October 1964 | Conservative | Alec Douglas-Home | ||
 | Michael Stewart | 18 October 1964 | 22 January 1965 | Labour | Harold Wilson | ||
.jpg) | Anthony Crosland | 22 January 1965 | 29 August 1967 | Labour | |||
 | Patrick Gordon Walker | 29 August 1967 | 6 April 1968 | Labour | |||
| Edward Short | 6 April 1968 | 19 June 1970 | Labour | |||
 | Margaret Thatcher[13][8] | 20 June 1970 | 4 March 1974 | Conservative | Edward Heath | ||
| Reginald Prentice[14] | 5 March 1974 | 9 June 1975 | Labour | Harold Wilson | ||
 | Fred Mulley[15] | 10 June 1975 | 9 September 1976 | Labour | |||
| James Callaghan | |||||||
 | Shirley Williams[16] | 10 September 1976 | 4 May 1979 | Labour | |||
| Mark Carlisle | 5 May 1979 | 14 September 1981 | Conservative | Margaret Thatcher | ||
| Keith Joseph[17] | 14 September 1981 | 20 May 1986 | Conservative | |||
 | Kenneth Baker[18] | 21 May 1986 | 23 July 1989 | Conservative | |||
 | John MacGregor[19] | 24 July 1989 | 1 November 1990 | Conservative | |||
 | Kenneth Clarke[20] | 2 November 1990 | 9 April 1992 | Conservative | |||
| John Major | |||||||
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Patten[21] | 10 April 1992 | 20 July 1994 | Conservative | John Major | ||
 | Gillian Shephard[22] | 20 July 1994 | 5 July 1995 | Conservative | |||
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative Labour
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gillian Shephard[22] | 5 July 1995 | 1 May 1997 | Conservative | John Major | ||
 | David Blunkett[23] | 1 May 1997 | 8 June 2001 | Labour | Tony Blair | ||
Colour key (for political parties):
Labour
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Estelle Morris[24] | 8 June 2001 | 24 October 2002 (resigned) | Labour | Tony Blair | ||
 | Charles Clarke[25] | 24 October 2002 | 15 December 2004 | Labour | |||
 | Ruth Kelly[26] | 15 December 2004 | 5 May 2006 | Labour | |||
 | Alan Johnson[27] | 5 May 2006 | 28 June 2007 | Labour | |||
In 2007, the education portfolio was divided between theDepartment for Children, Schools and Families (responsible for infant, primary and secondary education) and theDepartment for Innovation, Universities and Skills (responsible for further, higher and adult education). In 2009, the latter department was merged into theDepartment for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Colour key (for political parties):
Labour Labour Co-op
| Name | Portrait | Term of office | Length of term | Political party | Prime Minister | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ed Balls[28] |  | 28 June 2007 | 11 May 2010 | 2 years, 10 months and 13 days | Labour Co-op | Gordon Brown | ||
Colour key (for political parties):
Labour
| Name | Portrait | Term of office | Length of term | Political party | Prime Minister | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Denham[29] |  | 28 June 2007 | 5 June 2009 | 1 year, 11 months and 8 days | Labour | Gordon Brown | ||
TheDepartment for Education and the post of Secretary of State for Education were recreated in 2010.
Responsibility for higher and adult education remained with theSecretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable 2010–2015,Sajid Javid 2015–2016), until reunited with the Department for Education in 2016.
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative
* Incumbent's length of term last updated: 6 July 2025.
Recorded coverage of the Education select committee on the work of the Secretary of State with Education Secretary Michael Gove
Margaret Thatcher, the only education secretary so far who went on to become prime minister
| Presidents of the Board of Education | | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ministers of education | |||||||||||||||
| Secretaries of state |
| ||||||||||||||
.svg)
.svg)
