Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

The **Secretary of State for Health and Social Care**, often called the **health secretary**, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department of Health and Social Care. They are a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.  The first one was in 1968. For 30 years, from 1988 to 2018, it  was called **Secretary of State for Health.**  Before 1988 the department was the **Department of Health and Social Security.**

Since devolution in 1999, the  responsibility for the NHS is mostly the health service in England, with the ministers in Scotland and Wales responsible for the NHS in Scotland and Wales.

The current health secretary is Wes Streeting who was appointed by Keir Starmer on 5 July 2024.

## List of ministers

**Colour key** (for political parties):

### President of the Board of Health (1848–1858)

|colspan=3|President of the Board|colspan=2|Term of office|Political party|colspan=2|Prime Minister||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan=5 style="background-color:"||rowspan=5|Lord John Russell|||||||
||The Earl of Carlisle|1848|17 April 1849|Whig||||||
||Lord Seymour|17 April 1849|1 August 1851|Whig||||||
||Lord Seymour|1 August 1851|21 February 1852|Whig||||||
||Lord John Manners|4 March 1852|17 December 1852|Conservative|style="background-color:"||The Earl of Derby|||
||William Molesworth|5 January 1853|14 October 1854|Radical|rowspan=3 style="background-color:"||rowspan=3|The Earl of Aberdeen||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Benjamin Hall|rowspan=2|14 October 1854|rowspan=2|13 August 1855|rowspan=2|Whig|
|rowspan=4 style="background-color:"||rowspan=4|The Viscount Palmerston|||||||
||William Cowper|13 August 1855|9 February 1857|Whig||||||
||William Monsell|9 February 1857|24 September 1857|Whig||||||
||William Cowper|24 September 1857|21 February 1858|Whig||||||
||Charles Adderley|8 March 1858|1 September 1858|Conservative|style="background-color:"||The Earl of Derby|||
|colspan=8 style="width:10px"|_Board of Health abolished in 1858; responsibilities transferred to the Privy Council (1858–1871), then the Local Government Board (1871–1919)._|||||||||

### Minister of Health (1919–1968)

|colspan="3"|Minister|colspan="2"|Term of office|Political party|Ministry|||||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Christopher Addison|24 June 1919|1 April 1921|Liberal|rowspan="2"|Lloyd George II||||||||
||Alfred Mond|1 April 1921|19 October 1922|Liberal||||||||||
||Arthur Griffith-Boscawen|24 October 1922|7 March 1923|Conservative|rowspan="2"|Law||||||||
|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Neville Chamberlain|rowspan="2"|7 March 1923|rowspan="2"|27 August 1923|rowspan="2"|Conservative|||||
|rowspan="2"|Baldwin I|||||||||||||
||William Joynson-Hicks|27 August 1923|22 January 1924|Conservative||||||||||
||John Wheatley|22 January 1924|3 November 1924|Labour||MacDonald I||||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Neville Chamberlain|6 November 1924|4 June 1929|Conservative||Baldwin II||||||
||Arthur Greenwood|7 June 1929|24 August 1931|Labour||Macdonald II||||||||
||Neville Chamberlain|25 August 1931|5 November 1931|Conservative||National I||||||||
||Hilton Young|5 November 1931|7 June 1935|Conservative||National II||||||||
|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Kingsley Wood|rowspan="2"|7 June 1935|rowspan="2"|16 May 1938|rowspan="2"|Conservative||National III|||
|rowspan="2"|National IV|||||||||||||
|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Walter Elliot|rowspan="2"|16 May 1938|rowspan="2"|13 May 1940|rowspan="2"|Unionist|||||
||Chamberlain War|||||||||||||
||Malcolm MacDonald|13 May 1940|8 February 1941|National Labour|rowspan="3"|Churchill War||||||||
||Ernest Brown|8 February 1941|11 November 1943|National Liberal||||||||||
|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Henry Willink|rowspan="2"|11 November 1943|rowspan="2"|26 July 1945|rowspan="2"|Conservative|||||
||Churchill Caretaker|||||||||||||
|rowspan="2" style="background-color:"||rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Aneurin Bevan|rowspan="2"|3 August 1945|rowspan="2"|17 January 1951|rowspan="2"|Labour||Attlee I|
|rowspan="2"|Attlee II|||||||||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Hilary Marquand|17 January 1951|26 October 1951|Labour||||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Harry Crookshank|30 October 1951|7 May 1952|Conservative|rowspan="2"|Churchill III||||||
|style="background-color:; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"||rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Iain Macleod|rowspan="2"|7 May 1952|rowspan="2"|20 December 1955|rowspan="2"|Conservative|||
|style="background-color:; border-top:solid 0 gray"||rowspan="2"|Eden|||||||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Robin Turton|20 December 1955|16 January 1957|Conservative||||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Dennis Vosper|16 January 1957|17 September 1957|Conservative|rowspan="2"|Macmillan I||||||
|rowspan="2" style="background-color:"||rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Derek Walker-Smith|rowspan="2"|17 September 1957|rowspan="2"|27 July 1960|rowspan="2"|Conservative|||
|rowspan="2"|Macmillan II|||||||||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Enoch Powell|27 July 1960|20 October 1963|Conservative||||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Anthony Barber|20 October 1963|16 October 1964|Conservative||Douglas-Home||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Kenneth Robinson|18 October 1964|1 November 1968|Labour||Wilson I||||||
|colspan="7" style="width:10px"|_Post merged with Ministry for Social Security in 1968._|||||||||||||

### Secretary of State for Social Services (1968–1988)

|colspan=3|Secretary of State|colspan=2|Term of office|Political party|colspan=2|Ministry||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Richard Crossman|1 November 1968|19 June 1970|Labour||Wilson II||||
||Keith Joseph|20 June 1970|4 March 1974|Conservative||Heath||||
||Barbara Castle|5 March 1974|8 April 1976|Labour||Wilson III||||
||David Ennals|8 April 1976|4 May 1979|Labour||Callaghan||||
||Patrick Jenkin|5 May 1979|14 September 1981|Conservative|rowspan=2|Thatcher I||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Norman Fowler|rowspan=2|14 September 1981|rowspan=2|13 June 1987|rowspan=2|Conservative|
||Thatcher II|||||||||
||John Moore|13 June 1987|25 July 1988|Conservative||Thatcher III||||
|colspan=8 style="width:10px"|_Post split into Secretary of State for Social Security and Secretary of State for Health in 1988._|||||||||

### Secretary of State for Health (1988–2018)

|colspan=3|Secretary of State|colspan=2|Term of office|Political party|Ministry|||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|style="background-color:"|||Kenneth Clarke|25 July 1988|2 November 1990|Conservative|rowspan=2|Thatcher III||||
|style="background-color:; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"||rowspan=2||rowspan=2|William Waldegrave|rowspan=2|2 November 1990|rowspan=2|10 April 1992|rowspan=2|Conservative|
|style="background-color:; border-top:solid 0 gray"|||Major I|||||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Virginia Bottomley|10 April 1992|5 July 1995|Conservative|rowspan=2|Major II||||
|style="background-color:"|||Stephen Dorrell|5 July 1995|2 May 1997|Conservative||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Frank Dobson|3 May 1997|11 October 1999|Labour|rowspan=2|Blair I||||
|rowspan=2 style="background-color:"||rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Alan Milburn|rowspan=2|11 October 1999|rowspan=2|13 June 2003|rowspan=2|Labour|
|rowspan=2|Blair II|||||||||||
|style="background-color:"|||John Reid|13 June 2003|6 May 2005|Labour||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Patricia Hewitt|6 May 2005|28 June 2007|Labour||Blair III||||
|style="background-color:"|||Alan Johnson|28 June 2007|5 June 2009|Labour|rowspan=2|Brown||||
|style="background-color:"|||Andy Burnham|5 June 2009|11 May 2010|Labour||||||
|style="background-color:"|||Andrew Lansley|11 May 2010|4 September 2012|Conservative|rowspan=2|Cameron–Clegg||||
|rowspan=5 style="background-color:"||rowspan=5||rowspan=5|Jeremy Hunt|rowspan=5|4 September 2012|rowspan=5|8 January 2018|rowspan=5|Conservative|
||Cameron II|||||||||||
||May I|||||||||||
||May II|||||||||||

### Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (2018–present)

|colspan=3|Secretary of State|colspan=2|Term of office|Political party|Ministry|||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|style="background-color:"|||Jeremy Hunt|8 January 2018|9 July 2018|Conservative|rowspan=2|May II||||
|style="background-color:; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"||rowspan=3||rowspan=3|Matt Hancock|rowspan=3|9 July 2018|rowspan=3|26 June 2021|rowspan=3|Conservative|
|style="background-color:; border-top:solid 0 gray"|||Johnson I|||||||||
|style="background-color:; border-top:solid 0 gray"||rowspan=3|Johnson II|||||||||
|style="background-color:; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"|||Sajid Javid|26 June 2021|5 July 2022|Conservative||||||
|style="background-color:; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"|||Steve Barclay|5 July 2022|6 September 2022|Conservative||||||
|style="background-color:; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"|||Thérèse Coffey|6 September 2022|25 October 2022|Conservative||Truss||||
|style="background-color:; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"|||Steve Barclay|25 October 2022|13 November 2023|Conservative|rowspan=2|Sunak||||
|style="background-color:; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"|||Victoria Atkins|13 November 2023|5 July 2024|Conservative||||||
|style="background-color:; border-bottom:solid 0 gray"|||Wes Streeting|5 July 2024|Incumbent|Labour||Starmer||||

## Infobox (official post)

- **post**:
 Secretary of State
for Health and Social Care
- **insignia**: Coat of arms of the United Kingdom (2022, lesser arms).svg
- **insigniacaption**: Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
- **image**: Wes Streeting Official Cabinet Portrait, July 2024 (cropped).jpg
- **incumbent**: Wes Streeting
- **incumbentsince**: 5 July 2024
- **department**: Department of Health and Social Care
- **style**: **Health Secretary**

The Right Honourable

- **type**: Minister of the Crown
- **status**: Secretary of State (United Kingdom), Secretary of State
- **reports to**: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, The Prime Minister
- **seat**: Westminster
- **nominator**: The Prime Minister
- **appointer**: Monarchy of the United Kingdom, The Monarch
- **termlength**: At His Majesty's pleasure
- **formation**: * 14 October 1854:

* 8 January 2018:

- **salary**: £159,038 per annum
(including £86,584 Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), MP salary)
- **first**: Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover, Benjamin Hall