Government Delegation (Spain)

In Spain, apart from the Central Administration, the central government has a Peripheral Administration. This administration is composed of all those decentralized government services, and they are coordinated by the Government Delegations, which are headquartered in the Spanish regions' capitals. Likewise, this delegations exercise its powers through sub-delegations, headquartered in the provinces and insular directorates, headquartered in some islands. In total, there are 19 government delegations, 44 sub-delegations and 7 insular directorates.

The government delegations were established pursuant Section 154 of the Spanish Constitution and grants to them the task of direct the Government Administration in the regions as well as to direct the regional administration when necessary. ^[1] The sub-delegations and insular directorates were extended to the national territory in 1997 although it already existed since the 1970s. Their task is to assist the Government Delegate. All of them are part of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Civil Service.

Delegations and sub-delegations

Both entities are regulated in the Legal Regime of the Public Sector Act of 2015. ^[2]

Government Delegation

The Government Delegations or Delegations of the Government are the bodies that represent the central government in the autonomous communities. The Government Delegates have the rank of Under Secretaries and they report to the Prime Minister, although normally this competence is delegated to the Minister for Territorial Policy or, the Secretary of State for Territorial Policy. They are appointed by the Council of Ministers at the request of the Premier. If the office of Delegate is vacant, they are replaced by the Sub-delegate until a new Delegate is appointed. In the regions with a sole province, if there is no sub-delegate the Secretary-General of the delegation temporarily assumes office.

Unlike the sub-delegations and insular directorates, the Delegations are constitutionally provided. The main tasks of the delegations are: ^[2]

• To coordinate the General State Administration services and public bodies in the region.

  

  Headquarters of the Delegation and Sub-delegation of the Government in the Community of Madrid.

• To inform the citizens about the government activities in the region.

  

  Delegation of the Government in Galicia.

  

  Headquarters of the Government Delegation in Catalonia and of the Sub-delegation in Barcelona.

  

  Sub-delegation of the Government in Burgos.

  

  Sub-delegation of the Government in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

• To coordinate the government departments with other public administrations.
• To guarantee the correct application of the norms and laws and the respect for the powers of the central government.
• To propose measures to the Ministry responsible in order to avoid the inefficiency of the administration and the duplicity of public bodies.

• 

  Sub-delegation of the Government in Biscay.

  

  Headquarters of the Government Sub-delegation in the Province of Alicante.

  It is up to the Government Delegates to protect the free exercise of the constitutional rights and freedoms and to guarantee public security, through the Government Sub-delegates and the State Security Forces and Corps. For this purpose, the Delegate is the head of the state law enforcement agencies in the region.

Government Sub-delegation

The Government Sub-delegations or Sub-delegations of the Government are bodies that represent the central government in the Spanish provinces. The Sub-delegations were created by the 1997 General State Administration Organization and Functioning Act to replace the Civil Governors. ^[3] It exists a Sub-delegate of the Government in each province under the authority of the regional-level Government Delegate. They are appointed by the Delegate from career civil servants and they exercise the same powers of the Delegate but at a provincial level. ^[2]

In the single-province autonomous communities and in the autonomous cities, as a general rule, the Government Delegate assumes the powers that the Law attributes to the Government Sub-delegates in the provinces. These regions are Asturias, Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Ceuta, Melilla, Murcia, Navarre and La Rioja. ^[2] In Madrid, since 2003, because of its importance as the capital of the Kingdom and despite being a single-province region, there is both Delegate and Sub-Delegate of the Government. ^[4]

Headquarters of the Government Sub-delegation in Zamora.

Current delegations and sub-delegations

As of March 2023:

Delegation (Region)		Official	Term start	Refs.
	Sub-delegation (Province)
Andalusia		Pedro Fernández Peñalver	30 March 2021	[5]
	Almería	José María Martín Fernández	6 October 2022
	Cádiz	José Antonio Pacheco Calvo	19 September 2018
	Córdoba	Rafaela Valenzuela Jiménez	19 September 2018
	Granada	María Inmaculada López Calahorro	19 September 2018
	Huelva	Manuela Parralo Marcos	19 September 2018
	Jaén	Catalina Madueño Magdaleno	19 September 2018
	Málaga	Francisco Javier Salas Ruiz	16 July 2021
	Seville	Carlos Toscano Sánchez	19 September 2018
Aragon		María del Pilar Alegría Continente	12 February 2020	[6]
	Huesca	Silvia Salazar Altemir	18 September 2020
	Teruel	José Ramón Morro García	7 September 2018
	Zaragoza	Fernando Ángel Beltrán Blázquez	23 July 2020
Cantabria		Ainoa Quiñones Montellano	12 February 2020	[7]
Castilla–La Mancha		Francisco Tierraseca Galdón	16 March 2019	[8]
	Albacete	Miguel Juan Espinosa Plaza	17 June 2020
	Ciudad Real	María Ángeles Herreros Ramírez	17 September 2018
	Cuenca	María Luz Fernández Marín	15 June 2022
	Guadalajara	María Mercedes Gómez Mena	13 May 2021
	Toledo	Carlos Ángel Devia	11 September 2018
Castile and León		José Javier Izquierdo Roncero	12 February 2020	[9]
	Ávila	Fernando Galeano Murillo	11 February 2022
	Burgos	Pedro Luis de la Fuente Fernández	5 October 2018
	León	Faustino Sánchez Samartino	12 November 2018
	Palencia	Ángel Domingo Miguel Gutiérrez	12 November 2018
	Salamanca	María Encarnación Pérez Álvarez	5 October 2018
	Segovia	María del Lirio Martín García	19 October 2018
	Soria	Miguel Latorre Zubiri	26 October 2018
	Valladolid	Vacant	20 October 2022
	Zamora	Ángel Blanco García	24 September 2018
Catalonia		Carlos Prieto Gómez	28 March 2023	[10]
	Barcelona	Carlos Prieto Gómez	27 August 2019
	Girona	Albert Bramón Vives	31 July 2018
	Lleida	José Crespin Gómez	5 September 2018
	Tarragona	Joan Sabaté Borràs	31 July 2018
Ceuta		Salvadora del Carmen Mateos Estudillo	19 June 2018	[11]
Community of Madrid		Francisco Martín Aguirre	28 March 2023	[10]
	Madrid	María Elena Bernardo Llorente	30 June 2020
Valencian Community		Gloria Isabel Calero Albal	12 February 2020	[12]
	Alicante	María Araceli Poblador Pacheco	16 August 2018
	Castellón	Soledad Inmaculada Ten Bachero	16 August 2018
	Valencia	Luis Felipe Mrtínez Martínez	15 October 2021
Extremadura		María Yolanda García Seco	19 June 2018	[13]
	Badajoz	Francisco Alejandro Mendoza Sánchez	28 June 2018
	Cáceres	José Antonio García Muñoz	28 June 2018
Galicia		José Ramón Gómez Besteiro	28 March 2023	[10]
	La Coruña	María Rivas Ló	24 August 2021
	Lugo	María Isabel Rodríguez López	10 September 2018
	Ourense	Emilio González Afonso	10 September 2018
	Pontevedra	María del Carmen Larriba García	10 September 2018
Balearic Islands		Aina Calvo	12 February 2020	[14]
Canary Islands		Anselmo Pestana Padrón	12 February 2020	[15]
	Las Palmas	María Teresa Mayans Vázquez	29 November 2018
	Santa Cruz de Tenerife	Jesús Javier Plata Vera	28 September 2018
La Rioja		Beatriz Arraiz Nalda	30 August 2022	[16]
Melilla		Sabrina Moh Abdelkader	19 June 2018	[17]
Navarre		José Luis Arasti Pérez	19 June 2018	[18]
Basque Country		Denis Itxaso González	12 February 2020	[19]
	Álava	Javier Sáez Lanas	22 November 2021
	Guipúzcoa	Guillermo Echenique González	4 September 2018
	Biscay	José Vicente Reyes Martín	4 September 2018
Principality of Asturias		Delia Losa Carballido	19 June 2018	[20]
Region of Murcia		José Vélez Fernández	12 February 2020	[21]

Insular Directorates

Headquarters of the central government's Insular Directorate in Fuerteventura.

According to Section 70 of the Legal Regime of the Public Sector Act, the existence of Insular Directors is not mandatory. When they exist, they are freely appointed by the Government Delegate among civil servants and they depend directly from the Delegate or the Sub-delegate if exists. Their official title is Insular Directors of the General State Administration and they possess the same powers as a subdelegate. ^[2]

Directorate	Official	Term start	Refs.
Balearic Islands
- Ibiza-Formentera	Ramón Roca Mérida	5 April 2019	[22]
Menorca	Isabel López Manchón	19 July 2018	[23]
Canary Islands
Lanzarote	Juan Ramón Pérez Borges	2 October 2020
Fuerteventura	Domingo Francisco Fuentes Curbelo	5 October 2018	[24]
La Palma	Ana María de León Expósito	5 October 2018
La Gomera	Juan Luis Navarro Mesa
El Hierro	José Carlos Hernández Santana	21 February 2019	[25]

Collective assistance bodies

In order to assist the Government Delegates, there are two kind of collective bodies. The first kind are to Government Delegations which powers extend in more than one province, while the second is for one-province delegations. ^[2] The Sub-delegates also have an assistance bodies and there is a nation-wide committee to coordinate all Delegations.

More-than-one province

These bodies are chaired by the Delegate of the Government and integrated by the Sub-delegates of the Government of the provinces of its jurisdiction and the heads of the other departments and agencies of the Delegation. They exist to coordinate the actions of the different bodies, to homogenize the policies, to advise the Delegate of the Government and to discuss any other matter that the Delegate considers relevant. ^[2]

Single province delegation

In the single-province Autonomous Communities, it exists an assistance body chaired by the Delegate of the Government and integrated by the Secretary-General of the Delegation (who runs day-to-day the Delegation) and the heads of the other departments and agencies of the Delegation. ^[2]

Government Sub-delegations

In each Sub-delegation of the Government it exist an assistance committee to the Sub-delegate integrated by the Secretary-General of the Sub-delegation and the heads of the other departments and services of the Sub-delegation. They do the same duties as the other assistance bodies but at a provincial level. ^[2]

Coordination Committee' meeting in February 2020.

Interministerial Coordination Committee on the State Peripheral Administration

The Interministerial Coordination Committee on the State Peripheral Administration is a body of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Civil Service chaired by the Minister and integrated by the Secretary of State for Territorial Policy (deputy chair), the Secretary-General for Territorial Coordination, all the Under Secretaries of the government departments, all the Delegates of the Government and the Director-General for Internal Policy. To the meetings of the committee also assists the Deputy Director-General for the Boost of Peripheral Administration which acts as Secretary of the Committee and other senior officials of the Administrations invited by the chair. ^[26]

The Committee is in charge to improve the coordination of the central government Peripheral Administration, to boos the share of information, to establish a unique criteria of action and to discuss relevant issues for the government policy in the regions. ^[26]

References

1. "Spanish Constitution of 1978" (PDF). www.boe.es. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 December 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
2. "Legal Regime of the Public Sector Act of 2015". www.boe.es. Archived from the original on 2019-07-22. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
3. "1997 General State Administration Organization and Functioning Act". www.boe.es. Retrieved 2019-10-26.
4. "Royal Decree 466/2003, of April 25, which creates the Government Sub-delegation in Madrid". www.boe.es. Retrieved 2019-10-26.
5. "Pedro Fernández, el nuevo delegado del Gobierno, mano derecha de Entrena, el secretario granadino". sevilla (in Spanish). 2021-03-29. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
6. "Sánchez proyecta a Pilar Alegría como delegada en Aragón sin pactarlo con Lambán". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 2020-02-09. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
7. García, Laro. "Ainoa Quiñones, nueva delegada del Gobierno en Cantabria". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-02-15.
8. "Royal Decree 152/2019, of March 15, appointing Mr. Francisco Tierraseca Galdón as Government Delegate in the Autonomous Community of Castilla–La Mancha". boe.es. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
9. SoriaNoticias (2020-02-11). "José Javier Izquierdo, nuevo delegado del Gobierno en Castilla y León". sorianoticias.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-02-15.
10. "El Gobierno elige a Francisco Martín delegado en Madrid, a Carlos Prieto en Cataluña y a Gómez Besteiro en Galicia". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). 2023-03-27. Retrieved 2023-03-30.
11. "Royal Decree 471/2018, of June 18, appointing Ms. Salvadora del Carmen Mateos Estudillo as Government Delegate in Ceuta". boe.es. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
12. "Gloria Calero, nueva delegada del Gobierno en la Comunitat Valenciana". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 2020-02-11. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
13. "Royal Decree 467/2018, of June 18, appointing Ms. María Yolanda García Seco as Government Delegate in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura". boe.es. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
14. Mallorca, Diario de. "Aina Calvo ya es la delegada del Gobierno en Balears". www.diariodemallorca.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-02-15.
15. "Anselmo Pestana, nombrado nuevo delegado del Gobierno en Canarias". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 2020-02-11. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
16. "El Consejo de Ministros nombra a Beatriz Arraiz Nalda como delegada del Gobierno en La Rioja". Europa Press. 2022-08-30. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
17. "Royal Decree 472/2018, of June 18, appointing Ms. Sabrina Moh Abdelkader as Government Delegate in Melilla". boe.es. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
18. "Royal Decree 466/2018, of June 18, appointing Mr. José Luis Arasti Pérez as Government Delegate in the Chartered Community of Navarre". boe.es. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
19. "Denis Itxaso será el nuevo delegado del Gobierno español en Euskadi". Euskal Irrati Telebista (in Spanish). 2020-02-07. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
20. "Royal Decree 458/2018, of June 18, appointing Ms. Delia Losa Carballido as Government Delegate in the Principality of Asturias". boe.es. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
21. "El BOE publica el nombramiento de José Vélez como delegado del Gobierno". www.orm.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-02-15.
22. "Enrique Sánchez Navarrete, nuevo director insular del Estado en las Pitiusas". Periódico de Ibiza y Formentera (in Spanish). 2019-04-05. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
23. "Isabel López Manchón, nueva directora de la Administración General del Estado en Menorca". Europa Press. 2018-07-16. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
24. "BOE.es - Documento BOE-A-2018-13531". boe.es. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
25. "BOE.es - Documento BOE-A-2019-2376". boe.es. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
26. "Royal Decree 1162/2018, of September 14, which regulates the Interministerial Coordination Committee on the State Peripheral Administration". boe.es. Retrieved 2019-10-26.