The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the BritishDepartment for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors. The office used to be called the Minister of Transport, and has been merged with the Department for the Environment at various times.
The Ministry of Transport absorbed the Ministry of Shipping and was renamed the Ministry of War Transport in 1941, but resumed its previous name at the end of the war.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation was created by Winston Churchill in 1944 to look at peaceful ways of using aircraft and to find something for the aircraft factories to do after the war. The new Conservative Government in 1951 appointed the same Minister to Transport and Civil Aviation, finally amalgamating the Ministries on October 1, 1953.
Transport responsibilities were subsumed by the Department of the Environment from October 15, 1970 to September 10, 1976. This shows the junior minister responsible for transport within that department.
Gavin Strang and John Reid attended cabinet meetings, but were not formally members of the cabinet.
Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions
The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions was widely considered unwieldy and so was broken up, with the Transport functions now combined with Local Government and the Regions. Critics argued from the outset that this was a mistake and that a post of Secretary of State for Transport was needed in its own right.
After Byers' resignation, such a division was made, with the portfolios of Local Government and the Regions transferred to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Norman Y. Mineta is the longest serving Secretary in the history of the U.S. Department of Transportation, becoming the 14th Secretary of Transportation on January 25, 2001.
Secretary Mineta and his family were among the 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry forced from their homes and into internment camps during World War II.
Secretary Mineta is married to Danealia (Deni) Mineta.
Secretary Peters brings a unique perspective to her role as the nation's transportation chief, having spent her career working on transportation issues in the private and public sectors, including leading both federal and state transportation agencies.
As Secretary of Transportation, she intends to use these same skills to tackle today's most pressing challenges including fighting congestion across all modes of transportation, improving safety and addressing strains on traditional sources of transportation funding.
She is responsible for maintaining a safe, reliable and efficient transportation system, while leading an agency with almost 60,000 employees and a $61.6 billion budget that oversees air, maritime and surface transportation missions.
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