Minister for the Cabinet Office

The Minister for the Cabinet Office is a position in the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom. The minister is responsible for the work and policies of the Cabinet Office, and since February 2022, reports to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The position is currently the third highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, after the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.^[3]

United Kingdom Minister for the Cabinet Office
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent Nick Thomas-Symonds since 8 July 2024
Cabinet Office
Style	The Right Honourable (within the UK and Commonwealth)
Type	Minister of the Crown
Status	Minister of State
Member of	Cabinet (attending) Privy Council
Reports to	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Secretary of State in the Cabinet Office
Seat	Westminster
Nominator	Prime Minister
Appointer	The Monarch (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term length	At His Majesty's pleasure
Salary	£121,326 per annum (2022)[1] (including £86,584 MP salary)[2]

From the second May ministry until mid-2019 when the first Johnson ministry came to power, it functioned as an alternative title to Deputy Prime Minister or First Secretary of State. This practice ended when Dominic Raab was appointed as First Secretary of State on 24 July 2019, by Boris Johnson. Since a reshuffle in February 2022, the role attends Cabinet but not as a full member.^[4]

The corresponding Shadow Minister is the Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office.

Function and status

The Cabinet Office has a primary responsibility to support the work of the Prime Minister and ensure the effective running of government.^[5] Within this set-up, the Minister for the Cabinet Office has been seen to have varying responsibilities and stature in the government. The role is a flexible one and has variously been described as one or several of the following under different office-holders (and sometimes conflicting accounts of the status of the same office holder):^[6]

• Monitoring the co-ordination of the work of government departments
• Chairing or sitting on several Cabinet Committees
• An additional title to indicate special responsibility
• An additional title to indicate seniority

The government describes the minister for the Cabinet Office as being "in overall charge of and responsible for the policy and work of the department, and attends Cabinet".^[7]

Damian Green held the office in 2017, simultaneously with the office of First Secretary of State. Green chaired numerous Cabinet Committees and filled in for the Prime Minister at Prime Minister's Questions. By virtue of his responsibilities and as First Secretary of State, he was considered the de facto Deputy Prime Minister.^[8] Upon the appointment of David Lidington in 2018, Lidington retained the responsibilities Green had held, but the title of First Secretary of State remained vacant (as did the office of Deputy Prime Minister) until 2019.

As a result, the office between 2017–2019 absorbed the responsibilities of a de facto Deputy Prime Minister, without either of the associated titles usually granted to individuals in the British Government (First Secretary of State or Deputy Prime Minister). In 2019, new Prime Minister Boris Johnson ended this arrangement with the appointment of a new First Secretary of State, Dominic Raab, before upgrading his title again to Deputy Prime Minister in 2021.

Current minister and responsibilities

Nick Thomas-Symonds has served as the Minister for the Cabinet Office since 8 July 2024. He also serves as Paymaster General alongside his position.

The most recent responsibilities are:

• Oversight of all Cabinet Office policy and appointments
• Oversight of transition period activity and the United Kingdom's future relations with the EU

• Devolution issues and Strengthening the Union
• Leading cross-government and public sector transformation and efficiency
• Oversight of cross-government work on veterans' issues
• Oversight of Cabinet Office responsibilities on National Security and resilience, and the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, including COVID-19
• Supporting the coordination of the cross-government and the devolution aspects of the response to COVID-19

Ministers for the Cabinet Office

Every occupant of the position has simultaneously held a sinecure office, this being Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from Clark to Byrne, Paymaster General from Jowell to Gummer, and First Secretary of State with Green. Oliver Dowden, and all holders since Michael Ellis, including the incumbent Nick Thomas-Symonds, have held the office of Paymaster General, while David Lidington, Michael Gove and Steve Barclay held the role of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Minister			Term of office		Concurrent office	Party	Prime Minister
		David Clark	2 May 1997	27 July 1998	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster	Labour		Blair
		Jack Cunningham	27 July 1998	11 October 1999
		Mo Mowlam	11 October 1999	7 June 2001
		The Lord Macdonald of Tradeston	11 June 2001	13 June 2003
		Douglas Alexander	13 June 2003	8 September 2004
		Alan Milburn	8 September 2004	6 May 2005
		John Hutton	6 May 2005	2 November 2005
		Jim Murphy (acting)	5 November 2005	5 May 2006
		Hilary Armstrong	5 May 2006	28 June 2007
		Ed Miliband	28 June 2007	3 October 2008				Brown
		Liam Byrne	3 October 2008	5 June 2009
		Tessa Jowell	5 June 2009	11 May 2010	Paymaster General
		Francis Maude	12 May 2010	11 May 2015		Conservative		Cameron (Coalition)
		Matthew Hancock	11 May 2015	14 July 2016				Cameron (II)
		Ben Gummer	14 July 2016	11 June 2017				May
		Damian Green	11 June 2017	20 December 2017	First Secretary of State
		David Lidington	8 January 2018	24 July 2019	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
		Oliver Dowden	24 July 2019	13 February 2020	Paymaster General			Johnson
		Michael Gove	13 February 2020	15 September 2021	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
		Steve Barclay	15 September 2021	8 February 2022	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Downing Street Chief of Staff
		Michael Ellis	8 February 2022	6 September 2022	Paymaster General
		Edward Argar	6 September 2022	14 October 2022				Truss
		Chris Philp	14 October 2022	25 October 2022
		Jeremy Quin	25 October 2022	13 November 2023				Sunak
		John Glen	13 November 2023	5 July 2024
		Nick Thomas-Symonds	8 July 2024	Incumbent		Labour		Starmer

Ministers of State at the Cabinet Office

Minister of State for the Cabinet Office

• 1997: Derek Foster
• 1997–1999: Peter Kilfoyle
• 1998–2001: The Lord Falconer of Thoroton
• 1999–2001: Ian McCartney
• 2001: The Baroness Morgan of Huyton
• 2001–2002: Barbara Roche
• 2002–2003: Douglas Alexander
• 2004–2005: David Miliband

Minister Assisting the Deputy Prime Minister

• 2012–2015: David Laws

Minister of State in the Cabinet Office

• 2020–2022: The Lord True
• 2021–2022: Alok Sharma (President for COP26)
• 2021: The Lord Frost (Minister of State for EU Relations)
• 2022–2024: The Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Minister of State in the Cabinet Office

• 2024: Steve Baker (with responsibility for Windsor Framework implementation)

Minister of State at the Cabinet Office

• 2025–present: Douglas Alexander

Notes