Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces
Royal Arms as used by Her Majesty's Government
Incumbent James Heappey since 13 February 2020
Ministry of Defence
Member of	Defence Council Admiralty Board Army Board Air Force Board
Reports to	Secretary of State for Defence
Nominator	Secretary of State for Defence
Appointer	Prime Minister Subject to formal approval by the Queen-in-Council
Term length	No fixed term
Inaugural holder	Peter Blaker
Formation	1981
Website	www.mod.uk

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces, formerly of Minister of State rank, is a junior ministerial position at the Ministry of Defence in Her Majesty's Government. When titled as Minister of State (until the appointment of James Heappey in 2020), the office previously acted as the deputy to the Secretary of State for Defence.^[1]

The corresponding shadow minister is the Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces.

Role[]

The responsibilities of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces are:

• Operations and operational legal policy
• Force generation (including exercises)
• Military recruitment and retention policy (regulars and reserves)
• Cyber
• Permanent Joint Operating bases
• International defence engagement strategy
• Lead for defence engagement in Africa and Latin America
• Human security
• Operational public inquiries, inquests
• Youth and cadets
• Commemorations, ceremonial duties, medallic recognition and protocol policy and casework

List of Ministers of State for the Armed Forces[]

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative   Labour   Liberal Democrats

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister		Defence Secretary
	Peter Blaker		29 May 1981	13 June 1983	Conservative		Thatcher	Nott
								Heseltine
	John Stanley		13 June 1983	13 June 1987
								Younger
	Ian Stewart		13 June 1987	25 July 1988
	Archie Hamilton		25 July 1988	27 May 1993
								King
					Conservative		Major	Rifkind
	Jeremy Hanley		27 May 1993	14 June 1994
	Nicholas Soames		14 June 1994	2 May 1997
								Portillo
	John Reid		2 May 1997	27 July 1998	Labour		Blair	Robertson
	Doug Henderson		27 July 1998	29 July 1999
	John Spellar		29 July 1999	7 June 2001				Hoon
	Adam Ingram		7 June 2001	29 June 2007
								Reid
								Browne
	Bob Ainsworth		29 June 2007	5 May 2009	Labour		Brown
								Hutton
	Bill Rammell		5 May 2009	11 May 2010				Ainsworth
	Nick Harvey		13 May 2010	4 September 2012	Liberal Democrats		Cameron (Coalition)	Fox
								Hammond
	Andrew Robathan		4 September 2012	7 October 2013	Conservative
	Mark Francois		7 October 2013	11 May 2015
								Fallon
	Penny Mordaunt		11 May 2015	15 July 2016			Cameron (II)
	Mike Penning		15 July 2016	12 June 2017			May
	Mark Lancaster		12 July 2017	16 December 2019
								Williamson
								Mordaunt
							Johnson	Wallace
	Anne-Marie Trevelyan		16 December 2019	13 February 2020

List of Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State for the Armed Forces[]

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative   Labour   Liberal Democrats

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister		Defence Secretary
	James Heappey		13 February 2020	Incumbent	Conservative		Johnson	Wallace

Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces[]

References[]

External links[]

• www.mod.uk