Secretary of State for Education
United Kingdom government cabinet minister
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, only overseeing education in England. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. As education is fully devolved to the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive, the post holder has no jurisdiction or influence in education policy or direction in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
The office holder works alongside the other Education ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow secretary of state for education, and the work of the secretary of state is also scrutinised by the Education Select Committee.
The current education secretary is Lucy Powell.
Responsibilities
Corresponding to what is generally known as an education minister in many other countries, the education secretary's remit is concerned primarily with England. This includes:
Early years
Children's social care
Teacher recruitment and retention
The national curriculum
School improvement
Academies and free schools
Further education
Apprenticeships and skills
Higher education
Oversight of the departmental coronavirus (COVID-19) response
Oversight of school infrastructure improvement
History
A committee of the Privy Council was appointed in 1839 to supervise the distribution of certain government grants in the education field. The members of the committee were the Lord President of the Council, the Secretaries of State, the First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. From 1857 a vice-president was appointed who took responsibility for policy.
“Secretary of State for Education” enters the record as united Kingdom government cabinet minister. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Secretary, State and Education can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3477306. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1839 and 1857.
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This entry incorporates text from “Secretary of State for Education” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.