Ministerial role

Secretary of State for Business and Trade

Organisations: Department for Business and Trade and UK Defence and Security Exports
Current role holder: The Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP

Responsibilities

The Secretary of State has overall responsibility for the Department for Business and Trade. Responsibilities include:

  • overall responsibility for delivery and strategy
  • cross-government business engagement
  • public appointments
  • FTA negotiations, mandates, and decisions
  • WTO, G7, and G20 ministerial meetings
  • overseas network​

Current role holder

The Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP

Peter Kyle was appointed Secretary of State for Business and Trade and President of the Board of Trade on 5 September 2025. He was previously Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology from 5 July 2024 to 5 September 2025.

He was elected as the MP for Hove and Portslade in July 2024.

More about this person

Previous holders of this role

  1. The Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds MP

    2024 to 2025

  2. The Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP

    2023 to 2024