The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a
secretary of state in the
Government of the United Kingdom
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, with overall responsibility for the policies of the
Department for Transport
The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The ...
. The incumbent is a member of the
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the senior decision-making body of His Majesty's Government. A committee of the Privy Council, it is chaired by the prime minister and its members include secretaries of state and other senior ministers.
...
.
The office holder works alongside the other
transport ministers. The corresponding
shadow minister is the
shadow secretary of state for transport
The Shadow Secretary of State for Transport is a political post in the United Kingdom. It has been consistently held by a member of the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet since May 1979. The Shadow Secretary helps hold the Transport Secretary and ...
, and the secretary of state is also scrutinised by the
Transport Select Committee
The Transport Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Transport and its assoc ...
.
History
The Ministry of Transport absorbed the
Ministry of Shipping and was renamed the Ministry of War Transport in 1941, but resumed its previous name at the end of the war.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation was created by
Winston Churchill in 1944 to look at peaceful ways of using
aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. ...
and to find something for the aircraft factories to do after the war. The new Conservative government in 1951 appointed the same minister to both Transport and Civil Aviation, finally amalgamating the ministries on 1 October 1953.
The Ministry was renamed back to the Ministry of Transport on 14 October 1959, when a separate
Ministry of Aviation
The Ministry of Aviation was a department of the United Kingdom government established in 1959. Its responsibilities included the regulation of civil aviation and the supply of military aircraft, which it took on from the Ministry of Supply. ...
was formed.
Transport responsibilities were subsumed by the Department for the Environment, headed by the
secretary of state for the environment
The Secretary of State for the Environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment (DoE). This was created by Edward Heath as a combination of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of Tra ...
from 15 October 1970 to 10 September 1976.
The
Department for Transport
The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The ...
was recreated as a separate department by
James Callaghan in 1976.
The super-department
Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions was created in 1997 for
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (born 31 May 1938) is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he w ...
.
In 2001, the
Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions was widely considered unwieldy and so was broken up, with the Transport functions now combined with Local Government and the Regions in the DTLR (Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions). Critics argued from the outset that this was a mistake and that a post of secretary of state for transport was needed in its own right.
List of Ministers and Secretary of State
Minister of Transport (1919–1941)
Colour key (for political parties):
Minister of (War) Transport and Minister of Civil Aviation (1941–1953)
Colour key (for political parties):
Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation (1953–1959)
Colour key (for political parties):
Minister of Transport (1959–1970)
Colour key (for political parties):
Minister within the Department of the Environment (1970–1976)
Colour key (for political parties):
The junior ministers responsible for transport within the Department for the Environment:
Minister for Transport Industries (1970–1974)
*
John Peyton (''Conservative, 15 October 1970 – 7 March 1974'')
Minister for Transport (1974–1976)
*
Fred Mulley
Frederick William Mulley, Baron Mulley, PC (3 July 1918 – 15 March 1995) was a British Labour politician, barrister-at-law and economist.
Early life
Mulley attended Warwick School between 1929 and 1936. He served in the Worcestershire Regimen ...
(''Labour, 7 March 1974 – 12 June 1975'')
*
John Gilbert (''Labour, 12 June 1975 – 10 September 1976'')
Secretary of State for Transport (1976–1979)
Colour key (for political parties):
Minister of Transport (1979–1981)
Not an official member of the
cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
.
Colour key (for political parties):
Secretary of State for Transport (1981–1997)
Colour key (for political parties):
Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions (1997–2001)
Colour key (for political parties):
Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (2001–2002)
Colour key (for political parties):
After Byers' resignation, such a division was made, with the portfolios of Local Government and the Regions transferred to the
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific d ...
.
During the lifetime of DTLGR,
John Spellar served as Minister of State for Transport with a right to attend Cabinet.
*
John Spellar (''8 June 2001 – 29 May 2002'')
Secretary of State for Transport (2002–present)
Colour key (for political parties):
See also
*
Ministry of Civil Aviation Aerodrome Fire Service
References
External links
Track record: Transport secretaries
{{Cabinet positions in the United Kingdom
Transport
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipel ...
Ministerial offices in the United Kingdom
Department for Transport
Transport ministers
1919 establishments in the United Kingdom