Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

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Role of DH ministers

  • Last modified date:
    17 March 2008

The Department of Health's ministers are appointed by the Prime Minister to take forward health and social care policy.

Ministers provide the Department of Health with political leadership and are responsible for making the principal executive decisions on:

• strategy

• overall policy framework

• framework of laws

 • performance objectives both for the Department of Health and for the public services for which they have responsibility

 • agreeing overall resourcing levels with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Prime Minister

• priorities for distributing these resources, based on the overall strategy and policy framework.

Ministers, in general, will not become involved in local decisions or individual casework and, in particular, should not be involved in decisions or cases on DH business regarding their own parliamentary constituency.

Ministers are accountable to Parliament and the public for all aspects of Department of Health policy and performance. This accountability extends to cases where the Secretary of State of Health may have delegated some of his powers to other bodies.

The Secretary of State for Health is a member of the Cabinet. He or she has overall responsibility for the Department and heads the DH ministerial team.

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