Press Release Search
Search for press releasesHome Secretary and Ministerial Team Appointed
3 July 2007
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today welcomed a new ministerial team to the Home Office.
Tony McNulty and Liam Byrne remain as Ministers of State while Vernon Coaker remains as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.
New to the team are Admiral Sir Alan West GCB DSC, who joins the Home Office as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the House of Lords, and Meg Hillier who also joins the department as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.
The new Home Office team is:
- the Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP – Home Secretary with overall responsibility for the Home Office;
- Tony McNulty MP – Minister of State;
- Liam Byrne MP – Minister of State. Mr Byrne also becomes Minister for the West Midlands;
- Vernon Coaker MP – Parliamentary Under Secretary of State;
- Admiral Sir Alan West GCB DSC - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State; and
- Meg Hillier MP - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.
Precise ministerial responsibilities will be announced shortly.
Baroness Scotland has left the Home Office to take up the role of Attorney General while former Home Office minister Joan Ryan MP has left to become Her Majesty’s Special Representative to Cyprus and has also become a Privy Counsellor.
Notes to Editors:
Biographies of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and new Home Office ministers are:
Home Secretary - Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP
The Home Secretary is 45 and entered Parliament as MP for Redditch, Inkberrow, Feckenham and Cookhill in 1997.
Jacqui Smith MP grew up in Malvern, Worcestershire, before moving to Redditch in 1986. She still lives in Redditch with husband, Richard and sons James and Michael.
A graduate of Hertford College, Oxford, she took up teaching in 1986 at Arrow Vale High School in Redditch. She taught business studies and economics and became head of economics at Haybridge High School in Hagley before the general election in 1997.
Since becoming an MP Jacqui Smith has served on the treasury select committee and was promoted to Government in 1999. As one of the youngest ministers, she served for two years as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education. After successfully defending her seat in 2001 she was promoted to Minister of State for Health with responsibility for social services. Since then she has served as Minister of State at the Department for Trade and Industry, and Deputy Minister for Women. After the 2005 general election she became Minister of State for Schools. In May 2006 she joined the cabinet as Chief Whip. She became the first female Home Secretary in June 2007.
Parliamentary Under Secretary - Admiral Sir Alan West
Born 1948, Admiral Sir Alan West joined the Navy in 1965. He has spent the majority of his career at sea serving on fourteen different ships, commanding three of them. He has played prominent roles in the re-organisation of the Ministry of Defence, the initiation of a new budgetary system and the study into women’s integration and their service at sea.
He was responsible for organising the Fleet response to September 11, which involved major maritime deployments in the Northern Indian Ocean and the Royal Marines into Afghanistan. He was appointed as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff in September 2002 and this carries membership of the defence council and admiralty board.
Parliamentary Under Secretary - Meg Hillier MP
Meg Hillier, MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, began her political career in 2000 when she was elected to the London Assembly to represent Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest. She stood down at the June 2004 election after her selection as the parliamentary candidate for Hackney South and Shoreditch.
She chaired the London Assembly’s culture, sport and tourism committee. This committee monitored the mayor’s work in these areas and was the London watchdog on sports and culture issues. A former journalist, Meg has worked in or campaigned on housing issues for a decade and chaired the London Assembly’s inquiry into housing for key workers in 2000. She has campaigned for many years to keep the East London Line extensions, from Shoreditch to Dalston, on track. Transport is one of her key priorities – she has championed new buses coming to Hackney. Housing, childcare, schools and jobs are other priorities for her in Hackney. Meg is married with two young children.
-
Biographies for Liam Byrne, Tony McNulty, and Vernon Coaker can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/organisation/ministers/
-
A full breakdown of Her Majesty’s Government can be found at: http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page12240.asp
