# Government Delegation (Spain)

In Spain, apart from the Central Administration, the central government has a Peripheral Administration. This administration is composed of all those decentralized government services, and they are coordinated by the Government Delegations, which are headquartered in the Spanish regions' capitals. Likewise, this delegations exercise its powers through sub-delegations, headquartered in the provinces and insular directorates, headquartered in some islands. In total, there are 19 government delegations, 44 sub-delegations and 7 insular directorates.
The government delegations were established pursuant Section 154 of the Spanish Constitution and grants to them the task of direct the Government Administration in the regions as well as to direct the regional administration when necessary. The sub-delegations and insular directorates were extended to the national territory in 1997 although it already existed since the 1970s. Their task is to assist the Government Delegate. All of them are part of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Civil Service.

## Delegations and sub-delegations

Both entities are regulated in the Legal Regime of the Public Sector Act of 2015.

### Government Delegation

The Government Delegations or Delegations of the Government are the bodies that represent the central government in the autonomous communities. The Government Delegates have the rank of Under Secretaries and they report to the Prime Minister, although normally this competence is delegated to the Minister for Territorial Policy or, the Secretary of State for Territorial Policy. They are appointed by the Council of Ministers at the request of the Premier. If the office of Delegate is vacant, they are replaced by the Sub-delegate until a new Delegate is appointed. In the regions with a sole province, if there is no sub-delegate the Secretary-General of the delegation temporarily assumes office.
Unlike the sub-delegations and insular directorates, the Delegations are constitutionally provided. The main tasks of the delegations are:
* To coordinate the General State Administration services and public bodies in the region.Headquarters of the Delegation and Sub-delegation of the Government in the Community of Madrid.
* To inform the citizens about the government activities in the region.Delegation of the Government in Galicia.Headquarters of the Government Delegation in Catalonia and of the Sub-delegation in Barcelona.Sub-delegation of the Government in Burgos.Sub-delegation of the Government in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
* To coordinate the government departments with other public administrations.
* To guarantee the correct application of the norms and laws and the respect for the powers of the central government.
* To propose measures to the Ministry responsible in order to avoid the inefficiency of the administration and the duplicity of public bodies.
* Sub-delegation of the Government in Biscay.Headquarters of the Government Sub-delegation in the Province of Alicante.It is up to the Government Delegates to protect the free exercise of the constitutional rights and freedoms and to guarantee public security, through the Government Sub-delegates and the State Security Forces and Corps. For this purpose, the Delegate is the head of the state law enforcement agencies in the region.

### Government Sub-delegation

The Government Sub-delegations or Sub-delegations of the Government are bodies that represent the central government in the Spanish provinces. The Sub-delegations were created by the 1997 General State Administration Organization and Functioning Act to replace the Civil Governors. It exists a Sub-delegate of the Government in each province under the authority of the regional-level Government Delegate. They are appointed by the Delegate from career civil servants and they exercise the same powers of the Delegate but at a provincial level.
In the single-province autonomous communities and in the autonomous cities, as a general rule, the Government Delegate assumes the powers that the Law attributes to the Government Sub-delegates in the provinces. These regions are Asturias, Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Ceuta, Melilla, Murcia, Navarre and La Rioja. In Madrid, since 2003, because of its importance as the capital of the Kingdom and despite being a single-province region, there is both Delegate and Sub-Delegate of the Government.

### Current delegations and sub-delegations

As of March 2023:
| Delegation (Region) | Delegation (Region) | Official | Term start | Refs. |
| | Sub-delegation (Province) | Official | Term start | Refs. |
| Andalusia | Andalusia | Pedro Fernández Peñalver | 30 March 2021 | |
| | Almería | José María Martín Fernández | 6 October 2022 | |
| | Cádiz | José Antonio Pacheco Calvo | 19 September 2018 | |
| | Córdoba | Rafaela Valenzuela Jiménez | 19 September 2018 | |
| | Granada | María Inmaculada López Calahorro | 19 September 2018 | |
| | Huelva | Manuela Parralo Marcos | 19 September 2018 | |
| | Jaén | Catalina Madueño Magdaleno | 19 September 2018 | |
| | Málaga | Francisco Javier Salas Ruiz | 16 July 2021 | |
| | Seville | Carlos Toscano Sánchez | 19 September 2018 | |
| Aragon | Aragon | María del Pilar Alegría Continente | 12 February 2020 | |
| | Huesca | Silvia Salazar Altemir | 18 September 2020 | |
| | Teruel | José Ramón Morro García | 7 September 2018 | |
| | Zaragoza | Fernando Ángel Beltrán Blázquez | 23 July 2020 | |
| Cantabria | Cantabria | Ainoa Quiñones Montellano | 12 February 2020 | |
| Castilla–La Mancha | Castilla–La Mancha | Francisco Tierraseca Galdón | 16 March 2019 | |
| | Albacete | Miguel Juan Espinosa Plaza | 17 June 2020 | |
| | Ciudad Real | María Ángeles Herreros Ramírez | 17 September 2018 | |
| | Cuenca | María Luz Fernández Marín | 15 June 2022 | |
| | Guadalajara | María Mercedes Gómez Mena | 13 May 2021 | |
| | Toledo | Carlos Ángel Devia | 11 September 2018 | |
| Castile and León | Castile and León | José Javier Izquierdo Roncero | 12 February 2020 | |
| | Ávila | Fernando Galeano Murillo | 11 February 2022 | |
| | Burgos | Pedro Luis de la Fuente Fernández | 5 October 2018 | |
| | León | Faustino Sánchez Samartino | 12 November 2018 | |
| | Palencia | Ángel Domingo Miguel Gutiérrez | 12 November 2018 | |
| | Salamanca | María Encarnación Pérez Álvarez | 5 October 2018 | |
| | Segovia | María del Lirio Martín García | 19 October 2018 | |
| | Soria | Miguel Latorre Zubiri | 26 October 2018 | |
| | Valladolid | Vacant | 20 October 2022 | |
| | Zamora | Ángel Blanco García | 24 September 2018 | |
| Catalonia | Catalonia | Carlos Prieto Gómez | 28 March 2023 | |
| | Barcelona | Carlos Prieto Gómez | 27 August 2019 | |
| | Girona | Albert Bramón Vives | 31 July 2018 | |
| | Lleida | José Crespin Gómez | 5 September 2018 | |
| | Tarragona | Joan Sabaté Borràs | 31 July 2018 | |
| Ceuta | Ceuta | Salvadora del Carmen Mateos Estudillo | 19 June 2018 | |
| Community of Madrid | Community of Madrid | Francisco Martín Aguirre | 28 March 2023 | |
| | Madrid | María Elena Bernardo Llorente | 30 June 2020 | |
| Valencian Community | Valencian Community | Gloria Isabel Calero Albal | 12 February 2020 | |
| | Alicante | María Araceli Poblador Pacheco | 16 August 2018 | |
| | Castellón | Soledad Inmaculada Ten Bachero | 16 August 2018 | |
| | Valencia | Luis Felipe Mrtínez Martínez | 15 October 2021 | |
| Extremadura | Extremadura | María Yolanda García Seco | 19 June 2018 | |
| | Badajoz | Francisco Alejandro Mendoza Sánchez | 28 June 2018 | |
| | Cáceres | José Antonio García Muñoz | 28 June 2018 | |
| Galicia | Galicia | José Ramón Gómez Besteiro | 28 March 2023 | |
| | La Coruña | María Rivas Ló | 24 August 2021 | |
| | Lugo | María Isabel Rodríguez López | 10 September 2018 | |
| | Ourense | Emilio González Afonso | 10 September 2018 | |
| | Pontevedra | María del Carmen Larriba García | 10 September 2018 | |
| Balearic Islands | Balearic Islands | Aina Calvo | 12 February 2020 | |
| Canary Islands | Canary Islands | Anselmo Pestana Padrón | 12 February 2020 | |
| | Las Palmas | María Teresa Mayans Vázquez | 29 November 2018 | |
| | Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Jesús Javier Plata Vera | 28 September 2018 | |
| La Rioja | La Rioja | Beatriz Arraiz Nalda | 30 August 2022 | |
| Melilla | Melilla | Sabrina Moh Abdelkader | 19 June 2018 | |
| Navarre | Navarre | José Luis Arasti Pérez | 19 June 2018 | |
| Basque Country | Basque Country | Denis Itxaso González | 12 February 2020 | |
| | Álava | Javier Sáez Lanas | 22 November 2021 | |
| | Guipúzcoa | Guillermo Echenique González | 4 September 2018 | |
| | Biscay | José Vicente Reyes Martín | 4 September 2018 | |
| Principality of Asturias | Principality of Asturias | Delia Losa Carballido | 19 June 2018 | |
| Region of Murcia | Region of Murcia | José Vélez Fernández | 12 February 2020 | |

## Insular Directorates

According to Section 70 of the Legal Regime of the Public Sector Act, the existence of Insular Directors is not mandatory. When they exist, they are freely appointed by the Government Delegate among civil servants and they depend directly from the Delegate or the Sub-delegate if exists. Their official title is Insular Directors of the General State Administration and they possess the same powers as a subdelegate.
| Directorate | Official | Term start |
| Balearic Islands ||||
| - Ibiza-Formentera | Ramón Roca Mérida | 5 April 2019 |
| Menorca | Isabel López Manchón | 19 July 2018 |
| Canary Islands ||||
| Lanzarote | Juan Ramón Pérez Borges | 2 October 2020 |
| Fuerteventura | Domingo Francisco Fuentes Curbelo | 5 October 2018 |
| La Palma | Ana María de León Expósito | 5 October 2018 |
| La Gomera | Juan Luis Navarro Mesa | |
| El Hierro | José Carlos Hernández Santana | 21 February 2019 |

## Collective assistance bodies

In order to assist the Government Delegates, there are two kind of collective bodies. The first kind are to Government Delegations which powers extend in more than one province, while the second is for one-province delegations. The Sub-delegates also have an assistance bodies and there is a nation-wide committee to coordinate all Delegations.

### More-than-one province

These bodies are chaired by the Delegate of the Government and integrated by the Sub-delegates of the Government of the provinces of its jurisdiction and the heads of the other departments and agencies of the Delegation. They exist to coordinate the actions of the different bodies, to homogenize the policies, to advise the Delegate of the Government and to discuss any other matter that the Delegate considers relevant.

### Single province delegation

In the single-province Autonomous Communities, it exists an assistance body chaired by the Delegate of the Government and integrated by the Secretary-General of the Delegation (who runs day-to-day the Delegation) and the heads of the other departments and agencies of the Delegation.

### Government Sub-delegations

In each Sub-delegation of the Government it exist an assistance committee to the Sub-delegate integrated by the Secretary-General of the Sub-delegation and the heads of the other departments and services of the Sub-delegation. They do the same duties as the other assistance bodies but at a provincial level.

### Interministerial Coordination Committee on the State Peripheral Administration

The Interministerial Coordination Committee on the State Peripheral Administration is a body of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Civil Service chaired by the Minister and integrated by the Secretary of State for Territorial Policy (deputy chair), the Secretary-General for Territorial Coordination, all the Under Secretaries of the government departments, all the Delegates of the Government and the Director-General for Internal Policy. To the meetings of the committee also assists the Deputy Director-General for the Boost of Peripheral Administration which acts as Secretary of the Committee and other senior officials of the Administrations invited by the chair.
The Committee is in charge to improve the coordination of the central government Peripheral Administration, to boos the share of information, to establish a unique criteria of action and to discuss relevant issues for the government policy in the regions.