Government reshuffle brings new ministers into DfT, BEIS
Fri 14 February 2020
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Rachel Maclean MP is the new minister for the 'future of transport', including LowCVP areas of transport decarbonisation and the environment following a wide-ranging reshuffle of the Government on 13-14 February. She takes over from George Freeman MP. Alok Sharma MP has been appointed as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is also named as President for CoP26, the major international climate change conference which will take place in Glasgow in November.
Rachel Maclean was elected as Conservative MP for Redditch in 2017. She sat on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee between September 2017 and June 2018 and has served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Home Office, Department for Work and Pensions and HM Treasury.
Outside politics Rachel Maclean joined HSBC in 1989, working in Australia, Japan and Chile. In 2005 she set up a publishing company with her husband specialising in IT and software content. She recently co-founded a HR-software business which provides a platform for SMEs to use the latest technology tools to run their businesses more efficiently. She has also founded ‘Skilled and Ready’, a charity working with schools to help young people develop skills that businesses look for in their employees.
She has a degree in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University and a master’s degree in Work and Occupational Psychology from Aston University. She is married and has 3 sons and a daughter.
In addition to her responsibilities for decarbonisation and future transport, Rachel is also responsible for 'EU transition and future relationship'.
Alok Sharma is the new BEIS Secretary. The MP for Reading West, he was previously Secretary of State for International Development from July 2019 to February 2020, and Minister of State for Employment at the Department of Work and Pensions from January 2018 until July 2019. Formerly he was Minister of State for Housing and Planning, for the Department for Communities and Local Government from 13 June 2017 to 9 January 2018.
He was a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from July 2016 to June 2017, a member of the Commons Treasury select committee and a member of the Commons Science and Technology select committee. Prior to this, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Treasury and from 2012 to 2015 as a Conservative Party Vice Chairman. He also served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Oliver Letwin MP, the former Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who had overall responsibility for the Cabinet Office.
Prior to entering Parliament, Alok qualified as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte, and then worked for 16 years within banking. He is married with two children and lives in Reading.
Baroness Vere retains responsibility for buses and taxis at DfT following the reshuffle. Kwasi Kwarteng remains as minister responsible for business, energy and clean growth at BEIS.
For full details of all ministerial appointments, see this link.
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