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Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces

British ministerial position

Summary

British ministerial position

Field	Value
post	United Kingdom
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces
insignia	Coat of arms of the United Kingdom (2022, lesser arms).svg
insigniasize	120
insigniacaption	Royal Arms as used by His Majesty's Government
image	Official portrait of Al Carns MP crop 2.jpg
incumbent	Alistair Carns
incumbentsince	6 September 2025
department	Ministry of Defence
member_of	Defence Council
Admiralty Board
Army Board
Air Force Board
reports_to	Secretary of State for Defence
nominator	Secretary of State for Defence
appointer	Prime Minister
appointer_qualified	Subject to formal approval by the King-in-Council
termlength	No fixed term
inaugural	Peter Blaker
formation	1981
website	www.gov.uk

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces Admiralty Board Army Board Air Force Board

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces is a mid-level ministerial position at the Ministry of Defence in the Government of the United Kingdom. It has been held by Alistair Carns since September 2025.

The office sometimes acts as the deputy to the secretary of state for defence, when it is of Minister of State rank. In July 2024, the appointment of Luke Pollard reverted the minister’s title to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State.

The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow minister for the armed forces.

Roles

The responsibilities of the minister of state for the armed forces are:

implementation of relevant SDR Vision and Recommendations
oversight of Military Strategic Headquarters (MSHQ)
legislation (including Armed Forces Bill)
Northern Ireland Legacy
Ukraine support – operations
autonomy and drones, including Drone Centre of Excellence
Force Posture and Deployment
Intelligence
Global Operational policy and commitments
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) operations and planning
crisis response
Permanent Joint Operational Bases and Overseas Bases (including Cyprus, Falkland Islands and Gibraltar)
Military Aid to Civilian Authority (MACA)
Homeland Defence
UN Peacekeeping and Human Security Call Out Orders
Overseas Security and Justice Assistance Reports

List of ministers and under-secretaries

Colour key (for political parties):

Minister	Term of office	Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister	Labour Party (UK)}}"		Labour Party (UK)}}"		Conservative Party (UK)}}"
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Blank.png	60px]]	Barney Hayhoe	6 May 1979	5 January 1981	Conservative	Thatcher I	Pym
[[File:Blank.png	60px]]	Philip Goodhart	5 January 1981	19 May 1981	Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Blank.png	60px]]	Peter Blaker	29 May 1981	13 June 1983	Conservative	Thatcher I	Nott
Heseltine
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:No image.svg	60px]]	John Stanley	13 June 1983	13 June 1987	Conservative	Thatcher II
Younger
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:No image.svg	60px]]	Ian Stewart	13 June 1987	25 July 1988	Conservative	Thatcher III
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of Lord Hamilton of Epsom 2020 crop 2.jpg	60px]]	Archie Hamilton	25 July 1988	27 May 1993	Conservative
King
Major I	Rifkind
	Major II
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:No image.svg	60px]]	Jeremy Hanley	27 May 1993	14 June 1994	Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of Sir Nicholas Soames crop 2.jpg	60px]]	Nicholas Soames	14 June 1994	2 May 1997	Conservative
Portillo
Labour Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of Lord Reid of Cardowan, 2020.jpg	60px]]	John Reid	2 May 1997	27 July 1998	Labour	Blair I	Robertson
[[File:No image.svg	60px]]	Doug Henderson	27 July 1998	29 July 1999	Labour
[[File:Official portrait of John Spellar crop 2.jpg	60px]]	John Spellar	29 July 1999	7 June 2001	Labour	Hoon
Labour Party (UK)}}"		[[File:No image.svg	60px]]	Adam Ingram	7 June 2001	29 June 2007	Labour	Blair II
Blair III	Reid
Browne
Labour Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Bob Ainsworth cropped.jpg	60px]]	Bob Ainsworth	29 June 2007	5 May 2009	Labour	Brown
Hutton
Labour Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Bill Rammell.jpg	60px]]	Bill Rammell	5 May 2009	11 May 2010	Labour	Ainsworth
Liberal Democrats (UK)}}"		[[File:Nick Harvey, Minister of State for Armed Forces.jpg	60px]]	Nick Harvey	13 May 2010	4 September 2012	Liberal Democrats	Cameron-Clegg	Fox
Hammond
[[File:Andrew Robathan, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the MOD.jpg	60px]]	Andrew Robathan	4 September 2012	7 October 2013	Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of Rt Hon Mark Francois MP crop 2.jpg	60px]]	Mark Francois	7 October 2013	11 May 2015	Conservative
Cameron II	Fallon
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of Penny Mordaunt crop 2.jpg	60px]]	Penny Mordaunt	11 May 2015	15 July 2016	Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of Rt Hon Sir Mike Penning MP crop 2.jpg	60px]]	Mike Penning	15 July 2016	12 June 2017	Conservative	May I
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official_portrait_of_Mark_Lancaster_crop_2.jpg	60px]]	Mark Lancaster	12 July 2017	16 December 2019	Conservative	May II
Williamson
Mordaunt
Johnson I	Wallace
[[File:Official portrait of Mrs Anne-Marie Trevelyan crop 2.jpg	60px]]	Anne-Marie Trevelyan	16 December 2019	13 February 2020	Conservative	Johnson II
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of James Heappey MP crop 2.jpg	60px]]	James Heappey	13 February 2020	8 July 2022	Conservative	Johnson II	Wallace
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of James Heappey MP crop 2.jpg	60px]]	James Heappey	8 July 2022	6 September 2022	Conservative	Johnson II	Wallace
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of James Heappey MP crop 2.jpg	60px]]	James Heappey	6 September 2022	25 October 2022	Conservative	Truss	Wallace
Conservative Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of James Heappey MP crop 2.jpg	60px]]	James Heappey	25 October 2022	26 March 2024	Conservative	Sunak	Wallace
[[File:Official portrait of Leo Docherty MP crop 2.jpg	frameless	60px]]	Leo Docherty	26 March 2024	5 July 2024	Conservative	Shapps
Labour Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of Luke Pollard MP crop 2, 2024.jpg	60px]]	Luke Pollard	9 July 2024	6 September 2025	Labour	Starmer	Healey
Labour Party (UK)}}"		[[File:Official portrait of Al Carns MP crop 2.jpg	60px]]	Alistair Carns	6 September 2025	Present	Labour

Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces

Luke Pollard (2022 to 2024)

References

"Ministry of Defence".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

ministry-of-defence-(united-kingdom) ministers-of-defence-of-the-united-kingdom 1981-establishments-in-the-united-kingdom

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