Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

United Kingdom
Secretary of State
for Culture, Media and Sport
United Kingdom; Secretary of State; for Culture, Media and Sport
	Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
	Incumbent; Lucy Frazer; since 7 February 2023
	Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Style	Culture Secretary; (informal); The Right Honourable; (within the UK and Commonwealth)
Type	Minister of the Crown
Status	Secretary of State
Member of	Cabinet; Privy Council;
Reports to	The Prime Minister
Seat	Westminster
Nominator	The Prime Minister
Appointer	The Monarch; (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term length	At His Majesty's Pleasure
Formation	11 April 1992:; (as Secretary of State for National Heritage); 7 February 2023:; (as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport);
First holder	David Mellor; (as Secretary of State for National Heritage)
Salary	£159,038 per annum (2022); (including £86,584 MP salary)
Website	Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, also referred to as the Culture Secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for strategy and policy across the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.^[3] The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office has been dubbed "Minister of Fun".^[4]

Responsibilities

The secretary has overall responsibility for strategy and policy across the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.^[3] Responsibilities include:^[3]

Arts and Culture
Broadcasting
Creative industries
Creative Industries Council
Cultural property, heritage and the historic environment
Cultural Renewal Taskforce
Culture, sports and arts sector recovery from COVID-19
Gambling and racing
Libraries
Media ownership and mergers
Museums and galleries
The National Lottery
Sport
Tourism

History

The office was created in 1992 by Prime Minister John Major, as Secretary of State for National Heritage.^[5] In his autobiography, Major says that, before the office was created, responsibility for cultural interests was shared among various departments, but important to none of them.^[6] For instance, arts and libraries, although a separate department, had no minister in the Cabinet, sport was part of the Department for Education, film was part of the Department of Trade and Industry, broadcasting was part of the Home Office, tourism was part of the Department for Employment and heritage was part of the Department of the Environment.^[6] He also wrote that the system tended to favour the interests of the articulate and well-connected London-based arts lobby.^[6]

Thus, when he became Prime Minister, Major said that he saw that the only way to give culture and sport the higher profile that he thought that they deserved was to establish a new department, under a minister of Cabinet rank, to bring together all aspects of the arts, sport and heritage.^[7]

List of secretaries of state

Secretary of State for National Heritage (1992 - 1997)

	Term of office		Party
David Mellor MP for Putney	11 April 1992	22 September 1992	Conservative	John Major
Peter Brooke MP for Cities of London and Westminster	25 September 1992	20 July 1994	Conservative
Stephen Dorrell MP for Loughborough	20 July 1994	5 July 1995	Conservative
Virginia Bottomley MP for South West Surrey	5 July 1995	2 May 1997	Conservative
Chris Smith MP for Islington South and Finsbury	2 May 1997	22 July 1997	Labour	Tony Blair