The Privy Council is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its members, known as privy counsellors, are mainly senior politicians who are current or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords.
The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, making the home secretary one of the most senior and influential ministers in the government. The incumbent is a statutory member of the British Cabinet and National Security Council.
The Privy Council Office (PCO) provides secretariat and administrative support to the Lord President of the Council in his or her capacity as president of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council. The head of the office is the Clerk of the Privy Council. The PCO is an independent unit based in the Cabinet Office.
The Lord President of the Council is the presiding officer of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the fourth of the Great Officers of State, ranking below the Lord High Treasurer but above the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. The Lord President usually attends and is responsible for chairing the meetings of the Privy Council, presenting business for the approval of the Sovereign.
The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom's minister in charge of managing the British Empire.
The Lord Privy Seal is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. Originally, its holder was responsible for the monarch's personal (privy) seal until the use of such a seal became obsolete. Though one of the oldest offices in European governments, it has no particular function today because the use of a privy seal has been obsolete for centuries; it may be regarded as a traditional sinecure, but today, the holder of the office is invariably given a seat in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, and is sometimes referred to as a minister without portfolio.
William Michael Hardy Spicer, Baron Spicer, was a British politician and life peer who was a Conservative member of the House of Lords from 2010 until 2019. He served as Member of Parliament for West Worcestershire from 1974 to 2010 and was a minister from 1984 to 1990. He later served as chairman of the 1922 Committee from 2001 to 2010.
The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for Business and Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations, but is commonly known as the Board of Trade, and formerly known as the Lords of Trade and Plantations or Lords of Trade, and it has been a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. The board has gone through several evolutions, beginning with extensive involvement in colonial matters in the 17th century, to powerful regulatory functions in the Victorian Era and early 20th century. It was virtually dormant in the last third of the 20th century. In 2017, it was revitalised as an advisory board headed by the International Trade Secretary who has nominally held the title of President of the Board of Trade, and who at present is the only privy counsellor of the board, the other members of the present board filling roles as advisors.
The office of Vice-president of the Board of Trade is a junior ministerial position in the government of the United Kingdom at the Board of Trade, within the Department for Business and Trade. The office of Vice-president was created in 1786 but fell into abeyance in 1867. From 1848 onwards, the office was held concurrently with that of Paymaster General. The office of vice-president itself was effectively succeeded by that of Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade but the role is extant.
William Blathwayt was an English diplomat, public official and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1685 and 1710. He established the War Office as a department of the British Government and played an important part in administering the English colonies of North America.
Graham Charles Stuart is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Beverley and Holderness since 2005. He previously served in various ministerial positions under Prime Ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak between 2018 and 2024.
His Majesty's principal secretaries of state, or secretaries of state, are senior ministers of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. Secretaries of state head most major government departments and make up the majority of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
The Civil List and Secret Service Money Act 1782 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. The power over the expenditure in the King's household was transferred to the Treasury, and branches of which were regulated. No pension over £300 was to be granted if the total pension list amounted to over £90,000. Thereafter, no pension was to be above £1,300 unless it was granted to members of the royal family or granted by Parliament. Secret service money employed domestically was similarly limited. A section of the act also abolished the existing Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations which, with the loss of the American War of Independence, had been dismissed earlier by King George III on 2 May 1782.
The Lords of Trade and Plantations was a permanent administrative body formed by Charles II in 1675 to provide consistent advice to the Privy Council regarding the management of the growing number of English colonies. It replaced a series of temporary committees which had been set up to run the colonies since 1624. Following the Restoration of Charles II there were separate committees for trade and plantations until 1672, when a committee combining both remits was established. In 1675, named the Lords of Trade and Plantations, the committee had gained a more stable form. It was structurally replaced by what is now called the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations in 1696, although the commissioners were still regularly referred to as the Lords commissioners.
Victoria Mary Prentis, is a British politician and barrister. A member of the Conservative Party, Prentis served as the Member of Parliament for Banbury from 2015 until her defeat in 2024.
David Cameron formed the second Cameron ministry, the first Conservative majority government since 1996, following the 2015 general election. Prior to the election Cameron had led his first ministry, the Cameron–Clegg coalition, a coalition government that consisted of members of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister.
The Secretary of State for International Trade, also referred to as the International Trade Secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Department for International Trade and UK Export Finance. The incumbent was a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. Since the office's inception, the incumbent has concurrently been appointed President of the Board of Trade.
During the early 17th century, England's relative naval power deteriorated; in the course of the rest of the 17th century, the office of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs steered the Navy's transition from a semi-amateur Navy Royal fighting in conjunction with private vessels into a fully professional institution, a Royal Navy. Its financial provisions were gradually regularised, it came to rely on dedicated warships only, and it developed a professional officer corps with a defined career structure, superseding an earlier mix of sailors and socially prominent former soldiers.
