Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, commonly known as the Business Secretary is a cabinet position in the United Kingdom government. The office is responsible for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (formerly the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and previous to that the Department of Trade and Industry). The secretary of state is also President of the Board of Trade.

History

The idea of a Board of Trade was first translated into action by Oliver Cromwell in 1655 when he appointed his son Richard Cromwell to head a body of Lords of the Privy Council, judges and merchants to consider measures to promote trade. Charles II established a Council of Trade on 7 November 1660 followed by a Council of Foreign Plantations on 1 December that year. The two were united on 16 September 1672 as the Board of Trade and Plantations.

After the Board was re-established in 1696, there were 15 (and later 16) members of the Board - the 7 (later 8) Great Officers of State, and 8 unofficial members, who did the majority of the work. The senior unofficial member of the board was the President of the Board, commonly known as the First Lord of Trade. The board was abolished on 11 July 1782, but a Committee of the Privy Council was established on 5 March 1784 for the same purposes. On 23 August 1786 a new Committee was set up, more strongly focused on commercial functions than the previous boards of trade. At first the President of the Board of Trade only occasionally sat in the Cabinet, but from the early 19th century it was usually a cabinet level position. The very existence of the cabinet was enough to shake Britain.

During the government of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the then President of the Board of Trade Edward Heath was given in addition the job of Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development. This title was not continued under Harold Wilson, but when Heath became Prime Minister in 1970 he decided to merge the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Technology to create the Department of Trade and Industry. The head of this department became known as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and President of the Board of Trade.

When Harold Wilson re-entered office in March 1974, the office was split into the Department of Trade, the Department of Industry and the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection. The title President of the Board of Trade became the secondary title of the Secretary of State for Trade. In 1979 the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection was abolished by the incoming Conservative government and its responsibilities were reintegrated into the Department of Trade. In 1983 the offices of trade and industry were remerged and the title of Secretary of State for Trade and Industry was recreated. When Michael Heseltine held this office, he preferred to be known by the older title of President of the Board of Trade, and this practice was also followed by Ian Lang and Margaret Beckett. Heseltine's decision to reuse the old title caused some comment and it was discovered that the Board of Trade had not in fact met since the mid-nineteenth century.

Under Gordon Brown's premiership there were two renamings of the role and three re-alignments of responsibility. In his first cabinet of 2007, he called the post Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. In this change, the Better Regulation Executive was added to the department but the Office of Science and Innovation was lost. In 2008, the title remained the same but responsibility for energy was lost. In 2009, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was merged into the existing department and the post became Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.

First Lord of Trade (1672–1782)

President of the Committee on Trade and Foreign Plantations (1784–1786)

President of the Board of Trade (1786–1900)

President of the Board of Trade (1900–1963)

Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development
& President of the Board of Trade (1963–1964)

President of the Board of Trade (1964–1970)

Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
& President of the Board of Trade (1970–1974)

Secretary of State for Industry (1974–1983)

Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
& President of the Board of Trade (1983–2007)

† - Primarily referred to as President of the Board of Trade, and not as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

†† - Alan Johnson was initially announced on 6 May 2005, after the general election, as being "Secretary of State for Productivity, Energy and Industry and President of the Board of Trade", but after just a week, on 13 May, it was declared that the new title would not be used, after widespread derision of the new name, because the abbreviation for Johnson's title, Productivity, Energy and Industry Secretary, would have been "PENIS"^[1]

Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
& President of the Board of Trade (2007–2009)

Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
& President of the Board of Trade (since 2009)

References

v t e Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Ministers Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Minister of State for Universities and Science Minister of State for Business and Enterprise Minister of State for Trade and Investment Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Executive agencies Companies House HM Land Registry Insolvency Service Intellectual Property Office Met Office National Measurement Office Ordnance Survey Skills Funding Agency UK Space Agency Non-departmental public bodies Acas Competition Commission Consumer Futures Higher Education Funding Council for England Low Pay Commission Manufacturing Advisory Service Office for Fair Access Office of Manpower Economics Student Loans Company UK Atomic Energy Authority UK Commission for Employment and Skills Research councils Arts and Humanities Research Council Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Economic and Social Research Council Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Medical Research Council Natural Environment Research Council Science and Technology Facilities Council Category