Minister of State for the Armed Forces

United Kingdom Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces
Royal Arms as used by His Majesty's Government
Incumbent Alistair Carns since 6 September 2025
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 Subject to formal approval by the King-in-Council
Term length	No fixed term
Inaugural holder	Peter Blaker
Formation	1981
Website	www.gov.uk

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 2025.

The office sometimes acts as the deputy to the secretary of state for defence, when it is of Minister of State rank. ^[1] 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):
   Conservative    Labour    Liberal Democrats

Minister			Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister		Defence Secretary
		Barney Hayhoe	6 May 1979	5 January 1981	Conservative		Thatcher	Pym
		Philip Goodhart	5 January 1981	19 May 1981
		Peter Blaker	29 May 1981	13 June 1983	Conservative		Thatcher	Nott
								Heseltine
		John Stanley	13 June 1983	13 June 1987
								Younger
		Ian Stewart	13 June 1987	25 July 1988
		Archie Hamilton	25 July 1988	27 May 1993
								King
					Conservative		Major	Rifkind
		Jeremy Hanley	27 May 1993	14 June 1994
		Nicholas Soames	14 June 1994	2 May 1997
								Portillo
		John Reid	2 May 1997	27 July 1998	Labour		Blair	Robertson
		Doug Henderson	27 July 1998	29 July 1999
		John Spellar	29 July 1999	7 June 2001				Hoon
		Adam Ingram	7 June 2001	29 June 2007
								Reid
								Browne
		Bob Ainsworth	29 June 2007	5 May 2009	Labour		Brown
								Hutton
		Bill Rammell	5 May 2009	11 May 2010				Ainsworth
		Nick Harvey	13 May 2010	4 September 2012	Liberal Democrats		Cameron (Coalition)	Fox
								Hammond
		Andrew Robathan	4 September 2012	7 October 2013	Conservative
		Mark Francois	7 October 2013	11 May 2015
								Fallon
		Penny Mordaunt	11 May 2015	15 July 2016			Cameron (II)
		Mike Penning	15 July 2016	12 June 2017			May
		Mark Lancaster	12 July 2017	16 December 2019
								Williamson
								Mordaunt
							Johnson	Wallace
		Anne-Marie Trevelyan	16 December 2019	13 February 2020
		James Heappey	13 February 2020	25 October 2022	Conservative		Johnson Truss	Wallace
		James Heappey	25 October 2022	26 March 2024	Conservative		Sunak	Wallace
		Leo Docherty	26 March 2024	5 July 2024				Shapps
		Luke Pollard	9 July 2024	6 September 2025	Labour		Starmer	Healey
		Alistair Carns	6 September 2025	Present

Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces

Member of Parliament

Kevan Jones (2015 to 2016)

Kate Hollern (2016)

Wayne David (2016 to 2020)

Stephen Morgan (2020 to 2021)

Stephen Kinnock (2021 to 2022)

Luke Pollard (2022 to 2024)

References

1. "Ministry of Defence". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2021-04-12.

External links

• www.mod.uk