Template:Short description Template:About Template:Distinguish Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Uk-gov-positions The parliamentary under-secretary of state (or just parliamentary secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State)<ref name=":5">Template:Cite book</ref> is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister of State, which is itself junior to a Secretary of State.<ref name="Cabinet manual">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

BackgroundEdit

Template:Infobox UK legislation The Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975 (c. 27) provides that at any one time there can be no more than 83 paid ministers (not counting the Lord Chancellor, up to 3 law officers, and up to 22 whips). Of these, no more than 50 ministers can be paid the salary of a minister senior to a Parliamentary Secretary. Thus, if 50 senior ministers are appointed, the maximum number of paid Parliamentary Secretaries is 33.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="limitations-number-ministers">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The limit on the number of unpaid Parliamentary Secretaries is given by the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975, ensuring that no more than 95 government ministers of any kind can sit in the House of Commons at any one time; there is no upper bound to the number of unpaid ministers sitting in the House of Lords.<ref name="limitations-number-ministers" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The position should not be confused with the Permanent Secretary, which is the most senior civil servant in a government department (also known as the Permanent Under-Secretary of State), nor with a Parliamentary Private Secretary (an MP serving as an assistant to a minister entitled to directly relevant expenses but no further pay).<ref name="Cabinet manual" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Of his tenure as an under-secretary in Macmillan's 1957–1963 Conservative government from the Lords, the Duke of Devonshire noted: "No one who hasn't been a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State has any conception of how unimportant a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State is".<ref>Template:Cite ODNB</ref>

Current Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of StateEdit

There are 44 Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State, of whom six are unpaid.

The current Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State are:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Consumers<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities (LGBT+)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Growth and Building Safety<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Lords Minister)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Faith and Communities<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Future Roads<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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    • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Aviation, Maritime and Security<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Historic Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of StateEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

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