Website of the Department of Health
Please note that this website has a UK government access keys system.
Page menu
You are here:
Ministers and Department leaders
Ministers work with the Departmental board and clinical specialists to ensure the Department meets its objectives.
Ministers
The Department of Health ministers are led by the Secretary of State who is a Cabinet minister. Their ministerial responsibilities and biographies are in this section.
Departmental Board
The Departmental Board is chaired by the Permanent Secretary. Its role is to focus on high-level strategy, the most significant risks to the Department, and the overall integrity of corporate governance and decision making systems.
National clinical directors
National clinical directors are experts that each oversee the implementation of a national service framework (NSF). They advocate the NSFs in the NHS, and represent the NHS in the Department of Health.
Chief Medical Officer
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Sir Liam Donaldson, is the UK Government's principal medical adviser and the professional head of all medical staff in England. These pages provide up-to-date information on key public health and clinical quality issues and offer access to CMO reports and publications.
Additional links
Our health, our care, our say
Providing people with quality health and social care services in the communities where they live.
Health reform
Health reform brings together all the major changes needed to create a patient led NHS.
Access keys
