Talk:Secretary of State (United Kingdom)

Missing section
At present the article fails to show how we got from having a handful of Secretaries of State, to the present dozen plus. No doubt the number was reduced to four in the 1950s (Home Foreign Colonal and War) in the 1950s. My recollection is that the change was made by Harold Wilson in the 1960s, when he upgraded a variety of other cabinet posts to being Secretaries of State. However, I cannot be precise, nor do I have a citable authority on this. Peterkingiron (talk) 17:45, 28 April 2009 (UTC)


 * It seems it was actually Sir Alec Douglas-Home's government that began the process of upgrade. Although War and Air were merged into Defence on his watch, he transformed the President of the Board of Trade into the Secretary of State for Industry, Trade & Regional Development (albeit with the PotBoT title also existing) and later transformed the Minister of Education (and whatever post covered Science) into the Secretary of State for Education & Science. Wilson actually undid the former one, with "President of the Board of Trade" the main title in his government (maybe he was nostalgic having held that post himself), but Heath (SoS under Home) restored it as "SoS for Trade & Industry" in 1970. Timrollpickering (talk) 13:16, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Split needed
Much of this article really belongs in a page called Secretary of State (England). Are there any objections to that, please? Moonraker2 (talk) 13:33, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Please proceed with the split, as far as I am concerned. However, I am not clear where the best boundary will lie: 1707 marks the end of much in the way of a separate Scottish government, but made little difference to English arrangements.  Perhaps the boundary should be c.1780, when the Northern and Southern Secretaries were replaces by Home and Foreign.  Peterkingiron (talk) 21:45, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Which Secretary of State
Is it really as simple as is implied by the article to create or destroy these offices? I had a vague impression that the maximum number was limited, for example. (Are they paid more than other ministers?)

Where legislation imposes an obligation or bestows a privilege on "the Secretary of State", there must be some legal way to determine who it is. Do appointments come with a list of which Acts pertain to this office, for example? There must be some procedure for trying to make sure nothing slips through the cracks when departments are reorganized, for example. Is it handled by Orders-in-Council?

I think some legislation refers to "the Minister" likewise. Does this mean any minister, or any minister within a restricted scope (e.g. department), or a particular junior office to which this role has (for the time being) been assigned, by a similar process to the above? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 163.1.19.1 (talk) 15:31, 15 July 2017 (UTC)