The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the Transport Secretary, is the member of the cabinet responsible for the BritishDepartment for Transport. The office used to be called the Minister of Transport and has been merged with the Department for the Environment at various times. The Secretary of State is supported by a small team of junior Ministers. Each Minister is a Member of Parliament from either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. The number of Ministers supporting the Secretary of State for Transport vary from time to time, but is usually about 3. The titles given to these Ministers also vary. Currently the positions are held by one Minister of State for Transport and two Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State for Transport. During the tenure of different governments the title of Minister of/for Transport has been used to refer to the Secretary of State for Transport, one or more of the junior Ministers or even both the Secretary of State and the junior Ministers at the same time. From 2003 until June 2007 the role of Secretary of State for Transport was combined with the role of Secretary of State for Scotland. This arrangement changed on 28 June 2007, when in the appointment of his first Cabinet, Prime Minister Gordon Brown assigned the responsibilities of Secretary of State for Scotland to Des Browne, his Secretary of State for Defence. The names provided in the sections below are those who have served in a position equivalent to the Secretary of State for Transport.
Transport responsibilities were subsumed by the Department for the Environment, headed by the Secretary of State for the Environment from 15 October 1970 to 10 September 1976. Colour key :
The junior ministers responsible for transport within the Department for the Environment:
John Reid attended cabinet meetings, but was not formally a member of the cabinet whereas Gavin Strang was given a seat in the cabinet when he held the position.
Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (2001–2002)
The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions was widely considered unwieldy and so was broken up, with the Transport functions now combined with Local Government and the Regions in the DTLR. Critics argued from the outset that this was a mistake and that a post of Secretary of State for Transport was needed in its own right. Colour key :
After Byers' resignation, such a division was made, with the portfolios of Local Government and the Regions transferred to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. During the lifetime of DTLGR, John Spellar served as Minister of State for Transport with a right to attend Cabinet.