First Secretary of State
Privy Council | |
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| Reports to | Prime Minister |
| Residence | None, may use grace and favour residences |
| Nominator | Prime Minister |
| Appointer | The King (on the advice of the prime minister) |
| Term length | No fixed term |
| Inaugural holder | Rab Butler |
| Formation | 13 July 1962 |
| Salary | £153,022 per annum (including £81,932 MP salary)[1] (2019) |
| Political offices in the UK government |
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First Secretary of State is an office that is sometimes held by a minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The office indicates seniority,[2] including over all other secretaries of state.[3] The office is not always in use, so there have sometimes been extended gaps between successive holders.
Dominic Raab most recently held the position between July 2019 and September 2021, making it vacant at the moment.
Constitutional position
Like the deputy prime minister, the first secretary enjoys no right of automatic succession to the office of Prime Minister.[4] However, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to an intensive care unit on 6 April 2020, after contracting COVID-19, First Secretary Dominic Raab was asked "to deputise for him where necessary."[5]
The office temporarily enjoyed some greater constitutional footing between when it was incorporated as a corporation sole in 2002[6] and having all of its remaining functions transferred in 2008.[7] During most of this time, John Prescott was First Secretary.
History
In
Later, Michael Heseltine and John Prescott held the office alongside being Deputy Prime Minister.[11] The two offices have only existed concurrently with different holders in David Cameron's coalition government, wherein Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg was appointed Deputy Prime Minister while Conservative William Hague was First Secretary.[11]
Responsibilities
The office is currently listed on the gov.uk website as bringing no additional responsibilities.[12] However, Lord Norton says that there are two benefits to a prime minister in appointing a first secretary: firstly, it leaves a senior minister free to perform correlation and co-ordination and to chair committees and, secondly, it enables the prime minister to send a signal as to the status of the holder.[13] Stephen Thornton and Jonathan Kirkup have said that "the Office of First Secretary of State is only as important as the person holding that office is perceived to be important",[14] but in certain circumstances the office "can assume acute importance and real power" and it may yet become an office of substance.[15]
List of first secretaries of state
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Timeline
See also
- Ministerial ranking - the "pecking order" or relative importance of senior ministers in the UK government.
Notes
- ^ Served as Secretary of State for Economic Affairs until August 1967
- ^ Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from March 1968
- ^ Deputy Prime Minister from May 1997
- ^ Served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs until July 2014
- ^ Served as Leader of the House of Commons from July 2014
- ^ Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs until September 2020
- ^ Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs from September 2020
References
- ^ "Salaries of Members of Her Majesty's Government from 1st April 2019" (PDF). 1 April 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 July 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ "The Cabinet Manual" (PDF). gov.uk. 2010. 3.12. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ Watt, Nicholas (8 May 2015). "George Osborne made first secretary of state in cabinet reshuffle". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ISBN 9-781526-145451.
- ^ "Statement from Downing Street: 6 April 2020". gov.uk. 6 April 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ The Transfer of Functions (Transport, Local Government and the Regions) Order 2002, art 3(1).
- ^ The Transfer of Functions (Miscellaneous) Order 2008, art 7
- ISBN 978-0-19-260307-4.
- ISBN 978-0-19-260307-4.
- ^ ISBN 9781316515327.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-260307-4.
- ^ "First Secretary of State". gov.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ISBN 9-781526-145451.
- .
- .
- ISBN 9781448210824.
- ^ a b c d David Butler and Gareth Butler, British Political Facts 1900–1994 (7th edn, Macmillan 1994) 62.
- ^ "Lord Heseltine". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
- ^ "Lord Prescott". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
- ^ "Lord Hague of Richmond". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
- ^ "Rt Hon George Osborne". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
- ^ "Rt Hon Damian Green MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
- ^ "Dominic Raab". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
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