Secretary of State for Employment

The secretary of state for employment was a position in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. In 1995, it was merged with secretary of state for education to make the secretary of state for education and employment. In 2001, the employment functions were hived off and transferred to the secretary of state for social security to form the secretary of state for work and pensions.

List of ministers

Labour (1916–1940)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	John Hodge	10 December 1916	17 August 1917		Labour		David Lloyd George (Coalition)
	George Henry Roberts	17 August 1917	10 January 1919		Labour
	Robert Horne	10 January 1919	19 March 1920		Unionist
	Thomas James Macnamara	19 March 1920	19 October 1922		Liberal
	Anderson Montague-Barlow	31 October 1922	22 January 1924		Conservative		Bonar Law
							Stanley Baldwin
	Tom Shaw	22 January 1924	3 November 1924		Labour		Ramsay MacDonald
	Arthur Steel-Maitland	6 November 1924	4 June 1929		Conservative		Stanley Baldwin
	Margaret Bondfield	7 June 1929	24 August 1931 (lost seat 1931)		Labour		Ramsay MacDonald
	Henry Betterton	25 August 1931	29 June 1934		Conservative		Ramsay MacDonald (1st & 2nd National Min.)
	Oliver Stanley	29 June 1934	7 June 1935		Conservative
	Ernest Brown	7 June 1935	13 May 1940		Liberal National		Stanley Baldwin (3rd National Min.)
							Neville Chamberlain (4th Nat.Min.; War Coalition)

Labour and national service (1940–1959)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Ernest Bevin	13 May 1940	23 May 1945		Labour		Winston Churchill (War Coalition)
	R. A. Butler	25 May 1945	26 July 1945		Conservative		Winston Churchill (Caretaker Min.)
	George Isaacs	3 August 1945	17 January 1951		Labour		Clement Attlee
	Aneurin Bevan	17 January 1951	23 April 1951 (resigned)		Labour
	Alfred Robens	24 April 1951	26 October 1951		Labour
	Walter Monckton	28 October 1951	20 December 1955		Conservative		Winston Churchill
							Anthony Eden
	Iain Macleod	20 December 1955	14 October 1959		Conservative
							Harold Macmillan
	Edward Heath	14 October 1959	12 November 1959		Conservative

Labour (1959–1968)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Edward Heath	12 November 1959	7 July 1960		Conservative		Harold Macmillan
	John Hare	27 July 1960	20 October 1963		Conservative
	Joseph Godber	20 October 1963	16 October 1964		Conservative		Alec Douglas-Home
	Ray Gunter	18 October 1964	6 April 1968		Labour		Harold Wilson

List of secretaries of state

Employment and productivity (1968–1970)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Barbara Castle	6 April 1968	19 June 1970		Labour		Harold Wilson

Employment (1970–1995)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Robert Carr	20 June 1970	7 April 1972		Conservative		Edward Heath
	Maurice Macmillan	7 April 1972	2 December 1973		Conservative
	William Whitelaw	2 December 1973	4 March 1974		Conservative
	Michael Foot	5 March 1974	8 April 1976		Labour		Harold Wilson
	Albert Booth	8 April 1976	4 May 1979		Labour		James Callaghan
	James Prior	5 May 1979	14 September 1981		Conservative		Margaret Thatcher
	Norman Tebbit	14 September 1981	16 October 1983		Conservative
	Tom King	16 October 1983	2 September 1985		Conservative
	The Lord Young of Graffham	2 September 1985	13 June 1987		Conservative
	Norman Fowler	13 June 1987	3 January 1990		Conservative
	Michael Howard	3 January 1990	11 April 1992		Conservative
							John Major
	Gillian Shephard	11 April 1992	27 May 1993		Conservative
	David Hunt	27 May 1993	20 July 1994		Conservative
	Michael Portillo	20 July 1994	5 July 1995		Conservative

Education and employment (1995–2001)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Gillian Shephard	5 July 1995	2 May 1997		Conservative		John Major
	David Blunkett	2 May 1997	8 June 2001		Labour		Tony Blair

The office was merged with the Department of Social Security to form the Department for Work and Pensions in 2001.

See also

• Department for Work and Pensions