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, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office holder works alongside the other transport ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow secretary of state for transport, and the secretary of state is also scrutinised by the Transport Select Committee. The position of secretary of state for transport is held by Heidi Alexander, who was appointed by Keir Starmer following the resignation of Louise Haigh.

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 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 was formed. Transport responsibilities were subsumed by the Department for the Environment, headed by the secretary of state for the environment from 15 October 1970 to 10 September 1976. The Department for Transport 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 John Prescott. 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).

List of ministers and secretaries of state

Minister of Transport (1919–1941)

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Minister of (War) Transport and Minister of Civil Aviation (1941–1953)

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Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation (1953–1959)

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Minister of Transport (1959–1970)

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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)

Minister for Transport (1974–1976)

Secretary of State for Transport (1976–1979)

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Minister of Transport (1979–1981)

Not an official member of the cabinet. Colour key (for political parties):

Secretary of State for Transport (1981–1997)

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Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions (1997–2001)

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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. During the lifetime of DTLGR, John Spellar served as Minister of State for Transport with a right to attend Cabinet.

Secretary of State for Transport (2002–present)

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Timeline