United Kingdom
Minister of State for Development and Africa
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent
Andrew Mitchell
since 25 October 2022
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Style
StatusMinister of the Crown
Member of
Reports toPrime Minister
Foreign Secretary
SeatWestminster
NominatorThe Prime Minister
AppointerThe Monarch
(on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term lengthAt His Majesty's pleasure
Formation
  • 18 October 1964:
    (as Minister of Overseas Development)
  • 25 October 2022:
    (as Minister of State for Development and Africa)
First holderBarbara Castle
(as Minister of Overseas Development)
Websitewww.dfid.gov.uk

The minister of state for development and Africa,[1] formerly the minister of state for development and the secretary of state for international development, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom.

The officeholder headed the Department for International Development (DFID) as secretary of state from 1997 to 2020. The office formed part of the British Cabinet. The Department for International Development was abolished in September 2020, and Anne-Marie Trevelyan was the final holder of the post.

The post was made a ministerial position attending Cabinet in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in 2022. The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow cabinet minister for international development.

Responsibilities

Former

Corresponding to what is generally known as an international development minister in many other countries, the International Development Minister's remit includes:

Current

The Minister of State for Development and Africa's responsibilities are:[1]

  • Africa
  • International Development Strategy, Official Development Assistance (ODA), Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI)
  • British Investment Partnerships
  • International finance
  • global education, gender and equality (including scholarships)
  • global health
  • humanitarian and migration
  • safeguarding
  • research and evidence (including Chief Scientific Advised)

History

A separate Ministry of Overseas Development was established by Harold Wilson when he came to office in 1964. The first three holders of the office served in the Cabinet, but from 29 August 1967 the office was demoted. Under Edward Heath, the Ministry was re-incorporated into the FCO on 15 October 1970. Wilson again established the Ministry in 1974, but later merged it into the FCO once again: from 10 June 1975 to 8 October 1979 the foreign secretary served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Minister for Overseas Development in the cabinet, while the minister for overseas development held the rank of Minister of State within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The minister of state had day-to-day responsibility. Under the Labour government of the 1970s, Reg Prentice sat in the Cabinet during his term.[3] The post's last and main format was created in 1997 when the Department for International Development was made independent of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

In June 2020, it was announced the Department for International Development would be dissolved, and its operations would be merged into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The process was completed by 2 September 2020, with the last international development secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan remaining in place until that time.[4]

The position was revived at a Minister of State attending Cabinet role in 2022.

List of ministers and secretaries of state

Minister Term of office Party Ministry

Ministers of Overseas Development (1964–1970)

Barbara Castle 18 October 1964 23 December 1965 Labour Wilson
(I) (II)
Anthony Greenwood 23 December 1965 11 August 1966 Labour
Arthur Bottomley 11 August 1966 29 August 1967 Labour
Reginald Prentice 29 August 1967 6 October 1969 Labour
Judith Hart 6 October 1969 19 June 1970 Labour
Richard Wood 23 June 1970 15 October 1970 Conservative Heath

Ministers for Overseas Development (1970–1997)

Richard Wood 15 October 1970 4 March 1974 Conservative Heath
Judith Hart 7 March 1974 10 June 1975 Labour Wilson
(III)
Reginald Prentice 10 June 1975 21 December 1976
(resigned)		 Labour
Callaghan
Frank Judd 21 December 1976 21 February 1977 Labour
Judith Hart 21 February 1977 4 May 1979 Labour
Neil Marten 6 May 1979 6 January 1983 Conservative Thatcher
(I) (II) (III)


Timothy Raison 6 January 1983 10 September 1986 Conservative
Chris Patten 10 September 1986 24 July 1989 Conservative
Lynda Chalker
The Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
from 1992		 24 July 1989 2 May 1997 Conservative
Major
(I) (II)

Secretaries of State for International Development (1997–2020)

Clare Short 3 May 1997 12 May 2003 Labour Blair
(I) (II) (III)
Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos 12 May 2003 6 October 2003 Labour
Hilary Benn 6 October 2003 28 June 2007 Labour
Douglas Alexander 28 June 2007 11 May 2010 Labour Brown
Andrew Mitchell 12 May 2010 4 September 2012 Conservative Cameron-Clegg
Justine Greening 4 September 2012 14 July 2016 Conservative
Cameron
(II)
Priti Patel 14 July 2016 8 November 2017 Conservative May
(I)
May
(II)
Penny Mordaunt 9 November 2017 1 May 2019 Conservative
Rory Stewart 1 May 2019 24 July 2019 Conservative
Alok Sharma 24 July 2019 13 February 2020 Conservative Johnson
(I)
Johnson
(II)
Anne-Marie Trevelyan 13 February 2020 2 September 2020 Conservative
Vacant 2 September 2020 6 September 2022 Conservative


Minister of State for Development (2022)

Vicky Ford 6 September 2022 25 October 2022 Conservative Truss

Minister of State for Development and Africa (2022–present)

Andrew Mitchell 25 October 2022 Incumbent* Conservative Sunak

* Incumbent last updated: 12 January 2024.

References

  1. 1 2 "Minister of State (Development and Africa) - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
  2. ↑ "Secretary of State for International Development". GOV.UK.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 11 October 2010. Retrieved 16 November 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ↑ "Department for International Development to merge with Foreign Office". ITV News. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.