Minister for the Cabinet Office

Minister for the Cabinet Office
	Royal Arms of Her Majesty's Government
	Incumbent; Michael Gove; since 13 February 2020
	Cabinet Office
Style	The Right Honourable
Member of	Cabinet; Privy Council; National Security Council
Reports to	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Seat	Westminster, London
Appointer	The Monarch; on the advice of the Prime Minister
Term length	No fixed term
Website	www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk

The Minister for the Cabinet Office is a position in the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom. The Minister is responsible for all Cabinet Office policies and leading the department.

From the Second May ministry until mid-2019 when the First Johnson ministry came to power, it functioned as an alternative title to Deputy Prime Minister or First Secretary of State. This practice ended when Dominic Raab was appointed as First Secretary of State on 24 July 2019, by Boris Johnson.

Function and status

The Cabinet Office has a primary responsibility to support the work of the Prime Minister and ensure the effective running of government.[1] Within this set-up, the Minister for the Cabinet Office has been seen to have varying responsibilities and stature in the government. The role is a flexible one and has variously been described as one or several of the following under different office-holders (and sometimes conflicting accounts of the status of the same office holder):[2]

Monitoring the co-ordination of the work of government departments
Chairing or sitting on several Cabinet Committees
An additional title to indicate special responsibility
An additional title to indicate seniority

The government describes the minister for the Cabinet Office as being "in overall charge of and responsible for the policy and work of the department, and attends Cabinet".[3]

Damian Green held the office in 2017, simultaneously with the office of First Secretary of State. Green chaired numerous Cabinet Committees and filled in for the Prime Minister at Prime Minister's Questions. By virtue of his responsibilities and as First Secretary of State, he was considered the de facto Deputy Prime Minister.[4] Upon the appointment of David Lidington in 2018, Lidington retained the responsibilities Green had held, but the title of First Secretary of State remained vacant (as did the office of Deputy Prime Minister, vacant since 2015).

As a result, the office in its 2017-2019 absorbed the responsibilities of a de facto Deputy Prime Minister, without either of the associated titles usually granted to individuals in the British Government (First Secretary of State or Deputy Prime Minister). In 2019, new Prime Minister Boris Johnson ended this arrangement with the appointment of a new First Secretary of State, Dominic Raab.

Current minister and responsibilities

The current minister is Michael Gove, who was appointed for the Johnson ministry in February 2020. He simultaneously holds the sinecure office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The role has had varying responsibilities over time.

The most recent responsibilities are:

Supporting the Prime Minister in the running of the Government of the United Kingdom.
Advising the Prime Minister on developing and implementing Government policy.
Driving forward government business and implementation including through chairing and deputy chairing cabinet committees and taskforces.
Overseeing constitutional affairs and maintaining the integrity of the Union.
Oversight of all Cabinet Office policies.

Ministers for the Cabinet Office

Every occupant of the position has simultaneously held a sinecure office, this being Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from Clark to Byrne, Paymaster General from Jowell to Gummer, and First Secretary of State with Green. Oliver Dowden held the office of Paymaster General, while David Lidington and, presently, Michael Gove have held the role of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

	Term of office		Concurrent Office	Party	Prime Minister
David Clark	2 May 1997	27 July 1998	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster	Labour	Tony Blair
Jack Cunningham	27 July 1998	11 October 1999
Mo Mowlam	11 October 1999	7 June 2001
Lord Macdonald of Tradeston	11 June 2001	13 June 2003
Douglas Alexander	13 June 2003	8 September 2004
Alan Milburn	8 September 2004	6 May 2005
John Hutton	6 May 2005	2 November 2005
Jim Murphy (acting)	5 November 2005	5 May 2006
Hilary Armstrong	5 May 2006	28 June 2007
Ed Miliband	28 June 2007	3 October 2008			Gordon Brown
Liam Byrne	3 October 2008	5 June 2009
Tessa Jowell	5 June 2009	11 May 2010	Paymaster General
Francis Maude	12 May 2010	11 May 2015		Conservative	David Cameron (Coalition)
Matthew Hancock	11 May 2015	14 July 2016			David Cameron (II)
Ben Gummer	14 July 2016	11 June 2017			Theresa May (I)
Damian Green	11 June 2017	20 December 2017	First Secretary of State		Theresa May (II)
David Lidington	8 January 2018	24 July 2019	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster		Theresa May (II)
Oliver Dowden	24 July 2019	13 February 2020	Paymaster General		Boris Johnson (I) & (II)
Michael Gove	13 February 2020	Incumbent	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster		Boris Johnson (II)

Ministers of State for the Cabinet Office

Occasionally, a Minister of State for the Cabinet Office is appointed who is junior to the Minister for the Cabinet Office.

Name		Term of office		Party
	Derek Foster	2 May 1997	6 May 1997	Labour	Blair
	Peter Kilfoyle	6 May 1997	28 July 1999
	Ian McCartney	28 July 1999	11 June 2001
	Barbara Roche	11 June 2001	29 May 2002
	Douglas Alexander	29 May 2002	13 June 2003
	David Miliband	16 December 2004	11 May 2005
Vacant		11 May 2005	4 September 2012
					Brown
					Cameron (Coalition)
	David Laws	4 September 2012	7 May 2015	Liberal Democrats	Cameron (Coalition)
Vacant		8 May 2015	13 February 2020		Cameron (II)
					May (I)
					May (II)
					Johnson (I)
					Johnson (II)
	Chloe Smith	13 February 2020	Incumbent	Conservatives
	Lord Agnew of Oulton	14 February 2020
	Lord True	14 February 2020

Opposition spokespersons for the Cabinet Office

Shadow Ministers for the Cabinet Office

	Term of office		Title	Party	Leader
Andrew Lansley	15 June 1999	18 September 2001	Shadow Cabinet Office Minister	Conservative	Hague
Tim Collins	18 September 2001	23 July 2002	Shadow Cabinet Office Minister	Conservative	Duncan Smith
Unknown
Francis Maude	2 July 2007	11 May 2010	Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster	Conservative	Cameron
Tessa Jowell	11 May 2010	8 October 2010	Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office	Labour	Harman
Liam Byrne	8 October 2010	20 January 2011			Miliband
Tessa Jowell	20 January 2011	7 October 2011
Jon Trickett	7 October 2011	7 October 2013
Michael Dugher	7 October 2013	5 November 2014
Lucy Powell	5 November 2014	14 September 2015
Lucy Powell	5 November 2014	14 September 2015			Harman
Tom Watson	14 September 2015	7 October 2016			Corbyn
Ian Lavery	7 October 2016	9 February 2017
Jon Trickett	9 February 2017	5 April 2020	Shadow Lord President of the Council
Rachel Reeves	5 April 2020[5][6]	Incumbent	Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster		Starmer

Deputies for the shadow minister

Chris Matheson 12 January 2018 – 9 April 2020
Helen Hayes 9 April 2020 – 30 December 2020
Fleur Anderson 7 January 2021 to present

Scottish National Party Spokesperson

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Parliamentary Leader
	Tommy Sheppard		May 2015	Incumbent	Robertson Blackford

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson

	Term of office		Leader
Alan Beith	Pre-April 2003	Post-April 2003	Kennedy
Richard Allan	Pre-August 2003	Post-April 2004	Kennedy
David Heath	April 2006	January 2006	Campbell
Norman Baker	Pre-July 2007	December 2007	Campbell
Norman Baker	Pre-July 2007	December 2007	Cable
Susan Kramer	December 2007	May 2010	Clegg
May 2010 – May 2015, the Liberal Democrats were in a coalition government, so did not have opposition spokespersons
Vacant	July 2015	October 2018	Farron Cable
Vince Cable	21 October 2019	6 November 2019	Swinson

References

"What We Do". Cabinet Office. Government of the United Kingdom.
"Fourth Report: The Cabinet and the Centre of Government". Constitution Committee of the House of Lords. UK Parliament. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
"Minister for the Cabinet Office". Cabinet Office. Government of the United Kingdom.
Cheung, Aron (27 July 2017). "Cabinet committees show Damian Green is de facto Deputy PM". Institute for Government.
"Rachel Reeves MP". UK Parliament.
Snow, Jon (7 May 2020). "'There is a whole catalogue of errors when it comes to government procurement and PPE' – Labour's Rachel Reeves". Channel 4 News. Retrieved 19 May 2020.

External links

Cabinet Office

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[Cabinet_Office_Website-1] "What We Do". Cabinet Office. Government of the United Kingdom.

[2] "Fourth Report: The Cabinet and the Centre of Government". Constitution Committee of the House of Lords. UK Parliament. Retrieved 9 January 2018.

[Minister_for_the_Cabinet_Office-3] "Minister for the Cabinet Office". Cabinet Office. Government of the United Kingdom.

[Institute_for_Government-4] Cheung, Aron (27 July 2017). "Cabinet committees show Damian Green is de facto Deputy PM". Institute for Government.

[5] "Rachel Reeves MP". UK Parliament.

[6] Snow, Jon (7 May 2020). "'There is a whole catalogue of errors when it comes to government procurement and PPE' – Labour's Rachel Reeves". Channel 4 News. Retrieved 19 May 2020.

Cabinet Office
Ministers	Minister for the Cabinet Office Minister Without Portfolio Leader of the House of Lords Leader of the House of Commons Paymaster General Ministers of State for the Cabinet Office Minister for Implementation Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Cabinet Office
Ministerial departments	Office of the Leader of the House of Commons Office of the Leader of the House of Lords
Non-ministerial department	UK Statistics Authority
Executive agencies	Crown Commercial Service Government Property Agency
Non-departmental public bodies	Civil Service Commission Equality and Human Rights Commission Advisory Committee on Business Appointments Boundary Commission for England Boundary Commission for Wales Committee on Standards in Public Life House of Lords Appointments Commission Security Vetting Appeals Panel Senior Salaries Review Body
Other organisations	Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Commissioner for Public Appointments Geospatial Commission Government Digital Service Government Equalities Office Government Estates Management Infrastructure and Projects Authority Office of the Parliamentary Counsel Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists Privy Council Office Secretariats Civil Contingencies Secretariat Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms Defence and Overseas Secretariat Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat
Category

Downing Street
Buildings	9 Downing Street Chief Whip's Office 10 Downing Street 11 Downing Street 12 Downing Street Privy Council Office
Residence	First Lord of the Treasury Prime Minister Second Lord of the Treasury (Chancellor of the Exchequer) Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury Government Chief Whip Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office
Prime Minister's Office	Principal Private Secretary Parliamentary Private Secretary Chief of Staff Director of Communications Press Secretary Director of Policy Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson
Incidents	Provisional IRA mortar attack (1991) Plebgate (2012)
Miscellaneous	Downing Street Christmas Tree Ministerial Broadcast Prime Minister's New Year Message