Secretary of State for Education

Secretary of State for Education
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent
Lucy Powell
since 20 July 2026
Department for Education (England)
Style
TypeMinister of the Crown
StatusSecretary of State
Member of
Reports toThe Prime Minister
SeatWestminster
NominatorThe Prime Minister
AppointerThe Monarch
(on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term lengthAt His Majesty's Pleasure
Formation
  • 5 February 1857 (as Vice-President of the Committee of the Council on Education)
  • 12 May 2010: (as Secretary of State for Education)
First holderWilliam Cowper-Temple (as Vice-President of the Committee of the Council on Education)
DeputyMinister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education
Salary£159,038 per annum (2022)
(including £86,584 MP salary)
Websitegov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education

The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education, mainly overseeing education in England. They are a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.

The current education secretary is Lucy Powell.

List of secretaries (since 2010)

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative

Secretary of State Term of office Length of term Party Prime Minister
Michael Gove
MP for Surrey Heath
(tenure)		 12 May 2010 15 July 2014 4 years, 2 months and 3 days Conservative David Cameron
(Coalition)
Nicky Morgan
MP for Loughborough		 15 July 2014 13 July 2016 1 year, 11 months and 28 days Conservative
David Cameron
(II)
Justine Greening
MP for Putney		 14 July 2016 8 January 2018 1 year, 5 months and 25 days Conservative Theresa May
(I)
Theresa May
(II)
Damian Hinds
MP for East Hampshire		 8 January 2018 24 July 2019 1 year, 6 months and 16 days Conservative
Gavin Williamson
MP for South Staffordshire		 24 July 2019 15 September 2021 2 years, 1 month and 22 days Conservative Boris Johnson
(I)
Boris Johnson
(II)
Nadhim Zahawi
MP for Stratford-on-Avon		 15 September 2021 5 July 2022 9 months and 20 days Conservative
Michelle Donelan
MP for Chippenham		 5 July 2022 7 July 2022 35 hours Conservative
James Cleverly
MP for Braintree		 7 July 2022 6 September 2022 1 month and 30 days Conservative
A white man with brown hair and a blue suit Kit Malthouse
MP for North West Hampshire		 6 September 2022 25 October 2022 1 month and 19 days Conservative Liz Truss
(Truss ministry)
Gillian Keegan
MP for Chichester		 25 October 2022 5 July 2024 1 year, 8 months and 10 days Conservative Rishi Sunak
(Sunak ministry)
Bridget Phillipson
MP for Houghton and Sunderland South		 5 July 2024 20 July 2026 2 years and 15 days Labour Keir Starmer
(I)
Lucy Powell
MP for Manchester Central		 20 July 2026 Incumbent 3 months and 21 days Labour Andy Burnham
(I)

References

  1. ↑ "Salaries of Members of His Majesty's Government – Financial Year 2022–23" (PDF). 15 December 2022.
  2. ↑ "Pay and expenses for MPs". parliament.uk. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  3. ↑ "Secretary of State for Education". gov.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  4. ↑ "Rt Hon Michael Gove MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  5. ↑ "Baroness Morgan of Cotes". UK Parliament. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  6. ↑ "Rt Hon Justine Greening". UK Parliament. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  7. ↑ "Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  8. ↑ "Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  9. ↑ "Nadhim Zahawi MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  10. ↑ Gutteridge, Nick (2022-07-07). "Minister who quit after 35 hours is in line for £17,000 payout". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
  11. ↑ @10DowningStreet (July 7, 2022). "The Rt Hon James Cleverly MP @JamesCleverly has been appointed Secretary of State for Education @educationgovuk" (Tweet) – via Twitter.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ @10DowningStreet (September 6, 2022). "The Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP @KitMalthouse as Secretary of State for Education @EducationGovUK #Reshuffle" (Tweet) – via Twitter.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)