The parliamentary under-secretary of state (historically under-secretary of state or just parliamentary secretary, particularly in departments not led by a secretary of state) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a minister of state, which is itself junior to a secretary of state.
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Background
The Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975 (c. 27) provides that at any one time there can be no more than 83 paid ministers (not counting the Lord Chancellor, up to 3 law officers, and up to 22 whips). Of these, no more than 50 ministers can be paid the salary of a minister senior to a parliamentary secretary. Thus, if 50 senior ministers are appointed, the maximum number of paid parliamentary secretaries is 33.
The limit on the number of unpaid parliamentary secretaries is given by the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975, ensuring that no more than 95 government ministers of any kind can sit in the House of Commons at any one time; there is no upper bound to the number of unpaid ministers sitting in the House of Lords.
The position should not be confused with the permanent secretary, which is the most senior civil servant in a government department (also known as the permanent under-secretary of state), nor with a parliamentary private secretary (an MP serving as an assistant to a minister entitled to directly relevant expenses but no further pay).
Of his tenure as an under-secretary in Macmillan's 1957–1963 Conservative government from the Lords, the Duke of Devonshire noted: "No one who hasn't been a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State has any conception of how unimportant a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State is".
List of parliamentary under-secretaries of state
Current
There are 44 parliamentary under-secretaries of state, of whom six are unpaid.
The current parliamentary under-secretaries of state are:
HM Treasury
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (see Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs)
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Indo-Pacific
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Latin America and Caribbean
Home Office (see Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department)
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Migration and Citizenship
Ministry of Justice
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
Historic
Department for Exiting the European Union
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
Department of Health and Social Care
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health
Ministry of Technology
Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Technology
Foreign Affairs and War
Under-Secretary of State for Air at the Air Ministry
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs was formed in 1968 by the merging of
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs, which was the result of the 1966 merger of
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies at the Colonial Office
Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, which was originally
Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
Under-Secretary of State for India at the India Office
Under-Secretary for Ireland who lived at the Under Secretary's Lodge
Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, which was the result of the 1801 merger of the