Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom in the context of "Secretary of State (United Kingdom)"

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy. As the UK's biggest public service department it administers the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers. It is the second-largest governmental department in terms of employees, and the largest in terms of expenditure (£297 billion as of September 2025).

The department has two delivery services: Jobcentre Plus administers working age benefits: Universal Credit, Jobseeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance; the Child Maintenance Service provides the statutory child support scheme. DWP also administers State Pension, Pension Credit, disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment, and support for life events from Maternity Allowance to bereavement benefits.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), or Foreign Office is the ministry of foreign affairs and a ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom.

The office was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID). The FCO was itself created in 1968 by the merger of the Foreign Office (FO) and the Commonwealth Office. The department is responsible for representing and promoting British interests worldwide.

The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom that was responsible for the command of the Royal Navy.Historically, its titular head was the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of its history, from the early 18th century until its abolition, the role of the Lord High Admiral was almost invariably put "in commission" and exercised by the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty, who sat on the governing Board of Admiralty, rather than by a single person. The Admiralty was replaced by the Admiralty Board in 1964, as part of the reforms that created the Ministry of Defence and its Navy Department (later Navy Command).

Before the Acts of Union 1707, the Office of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs administered the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of England, which merged with the Royal Scots Navy and then absorbed the responsibilities of the Lord High Admiral of the Kingdom of Scotland with the unification of the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Admiralty was among the most important departments of the British Government, because of the Royal Navy's role in the expansion and maintenance of the English overseas possessions in the 17th century, the British Empire in the 18th century, and subsequently.

Head of the Armed Forces is the position of the sovereign of the United Kingdom as commander-in-chief of the British Armed Forces. Supreme military authority is vested in the monarch and extends to the exercise of several personal prerogatives. However, routine administration of the military is delegated as a matter of law to the Defence Council of the United Kingdom, a body officially charged with the direction and command of the Armed Forces. As the Defence Council and its service boards are all a part of the Ministry of Defence, which itself is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom, the prime minister makes the key decisions on the use of the Armed Forces, while the secretary of state for defence assists the prime minister in the development of defence policy and administers the day-to-day military operations.

Non-ministerial government departments, also called non-ministerial departments (NMDs), are a type of department of the United Kingdom government that deal with matters for which direct political oversight has been judged unnecessary or inappropriate. They are typically headed by senior civil servants. Some fulfil a regulatory or inspection function, and their status is therefore intended to protect them from political interference. Some are headed by a permanent office holder, such as a Permanent Secretary or Second Permanent Secretary.

The Department for International Development (DFID) was a ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom, from 1997 to 2020. It was responsible for administering foreign aid internationally.

The DFID was founded by the UK government in 1997. The department was established by the Labour government under Prime Minister Tony Blair. The structure of the DFID was authored by various Developmental Aid Experts including Chris Collins, Barnaby Edwards Machteld, Nicolas Brown and Timothy Montague Hamilton Douglas.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It holds the responsibility for culture and sport, and some aspects of the media throughout the UK, such as broadcasting. Its main offices are at 100 Parliament Street, occupying part of the building known as Government Offices Great George Street.

It also has responsibility for the tourism, leisure and creative industries (some jointly with the Department for Business and Trade). The department was also responsible for the delivery of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.