Lord Drayson was appointed as the first Minister for Defence Equipment and Support in March 2007.[1] This new appointment was made in order to reflect the establishment of the Defence Equipment & Support organisation of the UK Ministry of Defence. Whilst Lord Drayson held the role as a Minister of State, his successors have both been mere Parliamentary Under-Secretaries.
Previously the procurement aspects of this post were the responsibility of the Minister of Defence Procurement (either a Minister of State or the more junior, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State), while still the defence logistic aspects were the brief of the Minister of State for the Armed Forces.
Lord Drayson was succeeded by Lady Taylor in 2007.[2]
The current Minister is Quentin Davies MP, who recently defected to the Government after serving as a Conservative MP for over 20 years. [3]
Responsibilities
The Minister is responsible for:
- The Defence Equipment Programme and through life Defence logistics support, including:
- The Defence Equipment & Support Organisation
- Defence Support Group (the merger of the Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO) and the Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA))
- The Defence Industrial Strategy
- Defence Science and Technology, including:-
- Defence Science and Technology Laboratories (DSTL)
- Commercial policy throughout the Department
- Defence exports
- International aspects of defence equipment and support
Ministers
| Name | Portrait | Entered office | Left office | Political party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Lady Symons |  |
July 1999 | 8 June 2001 | Labour | |
| The Lord Bach |  |
8 June 2001 | 6 May 2005 | Labour | |
| The Lord Drayson |  |
6 May 2005 | 7 November 2007 | Labour | |
| The Lady Taylor |  |
7 November 2007 | 5 October 2008 | Labour | |
| Quentin Davies MP | |
5 October 2008 | present | Labour | |
References
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
