| Post: | Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport |
| Insignia: | Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government) (2022).svg |
| Insigniacaption: | Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government |
| Incumbent: | Lisa Nandy |
| Incumbentsince: | 5 July 2024 |
| Department: | Department for Culture, Media and Sport |
| Style: | Culture Secretary The Right Honourable |
| Type: | Minister of the Crown |
| Status: | Secretary of State |
| Reports To: | The Prime Minister |
| Seat: | Westminster |
| Nominator: | The Prime Minister |
| Appointer: | The Monarch |
| Termlength: | At His Majesty's Pleasure |
| Formation: |
|
| First: | David Mellor |
| Salary: | £159,038 per annum [1] (including £86,584 MP salary)[2] |
The secretary of state for culture, media and sport, also referred to as the culture secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for strategy and policy across the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.[3] The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office has been dubbed "Minister of Fun".[4]
The secretary has overall responsibility for strategy and policy across the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Responsibilities include:
The office was created in 1992 by Prime Minister John Major, as Secretary of State for National Heritage.[5] In his autobiography, Major says that, before the office was created, responsibility for cultural interests was shared among various departments, but important to none of them.[6] For instance, arts and libraries, although a separate department, had no minister in the Cabinet, sport was part of the Department for Education, film was part of the Department of Trade and Industry, broadcasting was part of the Home Office, tourism was part of the Department for Employment and heritage was part of the Department of the Environment. He also wrote that the system tended to favour the interests of the articulate and well-connected London-based arts lobby.
Thus, when he became Prime Minister, Major said that he saw that the only way to give culture and sport the higher profile that he thought that they deserved was to establish a new department, under a minister of Cabinet rank, to bring together all aspects of the arts, sport and heritage.[7]
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Mellor | 11 April 1992 | 22 September 1992 | Conservative | John Major | ||||
| Peter Brooke | 25 September 1992 | 20 July 1994 | Conservative | |||||
| Stephen Dorrell | 20 July 1994 | 5 July 1995 | Conservative | |||||
| Virginia Bottomley | 5 July 1995 | 2 May 1997 | Conservative | |||||
| Chris Smith | 2 May 1997 | 22 July 1997 | Labour | Tony Blair | ||||
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Smith | 22 July 1997 | 8 June 2001 | Labour | Tony Blair | |||
| Tessa Jowell | 8 June 2001 | 27 June 2007 | Labour | ||||
| James Purnell | 28 June 2007 | 24 January 2008 | Labour | Gordon Brown | |||
| Andy Burnham | 24 January 2008 | 5 June 2009 | Labour | ||||
| Ben Bradshaw | 5 June 2009 | 11 May 2010 | Labour | ||||
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maria Miller | 4 September 2012 | 9 April 2014 | Conservative | David Cameron | |||
| Sajid Javid | 9 April 2014 | 11 May 2015 | Conservative | ||||
| John Whittingdale | 11 May 2015 | 14 July 2016 | Conservative | ||||
| Karen Bradley | 14 July 2016 | 3 July 2017 | Conservative | Theresa May | |||
| In 2017 the DCMS was renamed to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in acknowledgement of the increasing responsibility the department had gained for Digital affairs.[8] Karen Bradley continued as Secretary of State for the department. | |||||||
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karen Bradley | 3 July 2017 | 8 January 2018 | Conservative | Theresa May | |||
| Matt Hancock | 8 January 2018 | 8 July 2018 | Conservative | ||||
| Jeremy Wright | 9 July 2018 | 24 July 2019 | Conservative | ||||
| Nicky Morgan | 24 July 2019 | 13 February 2020 | Conservative | Boris Johnson | |||
| Oliver Dowden | 13 February 2020 | 15 September 2021 | Conservative | ||||
| Nadine Dorries | 15 September 2021 | 6 September 2022 | Conservative | ||||
| Michelle Donelan | 6 September 2022 | 7 February 2023 | Conservative | Liz Truss | |||
| Rishi Sunak | |||||||
| Secretary of State | Term of office | Party | Prime Minister | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucy Frazer | 7 February 2023 | 5 July 2024 | Conservative | Rishi Sunak | ||||
| Lisa Nandy | 5 July 2024 | Incumbent | Labour | Keir Starmer | ||||