Ministerial role
Minister of State (Minister for Equalities)
Organisations:
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Office for Equality and Opportunity, and Department for Work and Pensions
Current role holder:
The Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms MP
Responsibilities
The Minister’s responsibilities are:
- Protecting and promoting disabled people’s rights, including by working with disabled people’s organisations and other stakeholders
- Delivering the Plan for Disability, working with the Lead Ministers for Disability
- Introduction of mandatory disability pay gap reporting
- British Sign Language (BSL) policy and on-going delivery of the BSL Act 2022, including with the BSL Advisory Board
- International work on disability
Current role holder
The Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms MP
Sir Stephen Timms was appointed jointly Minister of State in the Department for Work and Pensions and Minister of State (Minister for Equalities) in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 22 July 2026.
He was previously Minister of State (Minister for Social Security and Disability) in the Department for Work and Pensions and Minister for Equalities in the Department for Education between 8 July 2024 to 21 July 2026.
He was elected as the MP for East Ham in July 2024.