The Minister of State for the Armed Forces

British Armed Forces

The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...

is a middle-ranking ministerial position, subordinate only to the Secretary of State for Defence

Secretary of State for Defence

The Secretary of State for Defence, popularly known as the Defence Secretary, is the senior Government of the United Kingdom minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position...

, at the Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

 in Her Majesty's Government.

The current incumbent is the Liberal Democrat MP Nick Harvey

Nick Harvey

Nicholas Barton "Nick" Harvey is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He is the Member of Parliament for North Devon and the Minister of State for the Armed Forces.-Early life and education:...

, who was appointed as one of the Lib Dem MPs in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government.

The role's responsibilities are:

• All matters regarding Regular and Reserve Armed Forces
• Operations including Iraq
  Iraq
  Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
  
  , Counter-Terrorism
  Counter-terrorism
  Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
  
  , UK Operations, Northern Ireland
  Northern Ireland
  Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
  
   and the Balkans
  Balkans
  The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
  
  
• Bilateral defence relations outside the NATO/Europe area
• Inquiries, Boards of Inquiry, Inquests
• Legal issues including detention
• Arms and Export Control
• Regional issues and the devolved Administrations
• The agencies DASA
  Defence Analytical Services Agency
  Defence Analytical Services and Advice is a statistical and economic unit within the MoD, initially created in 1992 from various statistics branches within the Ministry of Defence, as the Defence Analytical Services Agency. DASA was an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence...
  
   and DVA
  Defence Vetting Agency
  The Defence Vetting Agency is an executive agency of the United Kingdom government responsible for vetting employees of the British Armed Forces, Ministry of Defence civil servants, defence contractors, and certain other government departments and organisations who work on contracts with certain...
  
  

List of Ministers of State for the Armed Forces

Name		Portrait	Took office	Left office	Political party	Prime Minister
	Adam Ingram Adam Ingram (Labour politician) Adam Paterson Ingram is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow from 1987 to 2010.-Early life:...		7 June 2001	29 June 2007	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...	Blair Tony Blair Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
	Bob Ainsworth Bob Ainsworth Robert William Ainsworth is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Coventry North East since 1992, and was the Secretary of State for Defence from 2009 to 2010...		29 June 2007	5 May 2009	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...	Brown Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
	Bill Rammell Bill Rammell William Ernest Rammell is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Harlow from 1997 to 2010, and has served as the Minister of State for the Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence...		5 May 2009	11 May 2010	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
	Nick Harvey Nick Harvey Nicholas Barton "Nick" Harvey is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He is the Member of Parliament for North Devon and the Minister of State for the Armed Forces.-Early life and education:...		13 May 2010	Date	Liberal Democrats Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...	Cameron David Cameron David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....

External links

www.mod.uk