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Minister of State for the Armed Forces
The Rt Hon Mark Lancaster TD MP
Biography
Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North. Mark was appointed Minister of State for the Armed Forces on 13 June 2017.
Mark was educated at Kimbolton School. He has a BSc in Business Studies from the University of Buckingham and an MBA from the University of Exeter Business School. He was awarded an Honorary PhD by Buckingham University in 2008.
Mark served on a gap year commission in the army between 1988 and 1990. He was a company director for the family fireworks firm, Kimbolton Fireworks, before he was elected to Parliament and continues to serve in the Army Reserves as a Colonel; this has included operational tours in Kosovo (1999 to 2000), Bosnia (2001 to 2002) and Afghanistan (2006).
Mark was a Member of Huntingdonshire District Council (1995 to 1999) where he served as the Chairman of the Leisure Committee (1996 to 1999). He was elected as Member of Parliament for the North East Milton Keynes in the 2005 general election.
Mark was a Conservative Party whip between November 2006 until July 2007 and as a Shadow Minister for Department for International Development ((DfID) until the 2010 general election. Shortly after his re-election in 2010, he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Secretary of State for International Development. In September 2012 he became a government minister when he was made a Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Treasury. In May 2015 Mark was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence Veterans, Reserves and Personnel and held that position until June 2017, when he was appointed Minister of State for the Armed Forces.
He is married to Caroline Dinenage the MP for Gosport.
Minister of State for the Armed Forces
Responsible for armed forces activity including operations, operational legal matters, force generation and international defence engagement.
Responsibilities include:
- operations and operational legal policy
- Brexit no deal planning
- force generation (including exercises)
- military recruitment and retention policy (regulars and reserves)
- cyber
- Permanent Joint Operating bases
- international defence engagement strategy
- lead for defence engagement in Africa and Latin America
- human security
- operational public inquiries, inquests
- youth and cadets
- commemorations, ceremonial duties, medallic recognition and protocol policy and casework
Previous roles in government
Announcements
- Defence Minister visits West Africa and extends language training to Senegalese Armed Forces
- RAF Chinook assists Derbyshire Police at Toddbrook Reservoir
- Second Lightning fighter jet squadron arrives in UK
- New recruitment drive for Team Tempest
- UK reaffirms commitment to Western Balkans security on 20th anniversary of NATO Kosovo intervention
- Hundreds of British troops arrive in Croatia for airborne exercises
- RAF Typhoons intercept Russian fighters in Estonia
- Thousands of troops from UK-led force begin milestone maritime training deployment
- Number of servicewomen on UN Peacekeeping operations to increase
- RAF Typhoons scramble twice in two days to intercept Russian aircraft