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37-751: The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom , first created in 1768 from the Southern Department to deal with colonial affairs in North America (particularly the Thirteen Colonies , as well as, the Canadian territories recently won from France), until merged into the new Home Office in 1782. In 1801, colonial affairs were transferred to

74-617: A minister of state . Colonial responsibilities were previously held jointly by the lords of trade and plantations (board) and the secretary of state for the Southern Department , who was responsible for Ireland , the American colonies, and relations with the Catholic and Muslim states of Europe , as well as being jointly responsible for domestic affairs with the Secretary of State for

111-665: A government minister or secretary of state , are considered to be departments . Until 2018, the term "ministry" had been retained only for the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Justice . On 8 January 2018, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the Department of Communities and Local Government would be renamed to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to emphasise her government's prioritising of housing policy. In September 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson reverted

148-484: A long time as ministries ( Finance , National Defense , Foreign Affairs , Health , etc.). The term "ministry" also continues to be used as the vernacular to refer to a government area. In Nigeria each ministry is led by a minister who is not a member of the Nigerian legislature (due to the separation of powers) and is responsible to the popularly elected president . In Lebanon , there are 21 ministries. Each ministry

185-481: A member of Cabinet , the executive, which is then responsible for one or more departments , the top division of the public service. The collection of departments responsible to a ministerial office and hence the minister, is referred to as the minister's "portfolio". New Zealand 's state agencies include many ministries and a smaller number of departments. Increasingly, state agencies are styled neither as ministries nor as departments. All New Zealand agencies are under

222-408: A subdivision of a department or ministry. The federal Government of Canada uses the term department to refer to its first-level executive bodies. In Canada , first-level subdivisions are known as provinces and territories . Five of the ten provincial governments use the term ministry to describe their departments ( Ontario , Quebec , Saskatchewan , British Columbia , and Alberta ) but

259-441: A title such as minister , secretary , or commissioner, and are typically staffed with members of a non-political civil service , who manage its operations; they may also oversee other government agencies and organizations as part of a political portfolio . Governments may have differing numbers and types of ministries and departments. In some countries, these terms may be used with specific meanings: for example, an office may be

296-654: Is led by a minister, and the prime minister is the 23rd minister of the Lebanese government. In the European Union , the equivalent organisation to a national government department is termed directorate-general with the civil servant in charge called a director-general (in the European Commission , the political head of the department is one of the European Commissioners ). The government departments of

333-536: Is still edited by Sir W. H. Mercer, K.C.M.G., one of the Crown Agents for the Colonies, but it is printed by Waterlow and Sons, London Wall. It comes as near to being an "Official publication" as possible, but we'll assume that it isn't. Ministry (government department) These types of organizations are usually led by a politician who is a member of a cabinet —a body of high-ranking government officials—who may use

370-621: The Indian Department was responsible for relations with indigenous nations in North America from 1755 onwards. In 1768 the separate American or Colonial Department was established, in order to deal with colonial affairs in British America . With the loss of thirteen of its colonies , however, the department was abolished in 1782. Responsibility for the remaining colonies was given to the Home Office , and subsequently in 1801 transferred to

407-691: The British Empire (excepting India , which was administered separately by the East India Company and then the British Raj ) was divided by the War and Colonial Office into the following administrative departments: In 1854, the War and Colonial Office was divided in two, the War Office and a new Colonial Office, created to deal specifically with affairs in the colonies and assigned to the Secretary of State for

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444-706: The Colonial Office was separated out as the Dominions Office , with its own secretary of state . The new office was responsible for dealing with the Dominions together with a small number of other territories (most notably Southern Rhodesia ). In the twenty years following the end of the Second World War , much of the British Empire was dismantled as its various territories gained independence. In consequence,

481-997: The Dominion of India and Dominion of Pakistan gained independence in 1947, the Dominion Office was merged with the India Office to form the Commonwealth Relations Office . In 1966, the Commonwealth Relations Office was re-merged with the Colonial Office, forming the Commonwealth Office . Two years later, this department was itself merged into the Foreign Office, establishing the Foreign and Commonwealth Office . The Colonial Office had its offices in

518-757: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office Main Building in Whitehall . From 1862, the Colonial Office published historical and statistical information concerning the United Kingdom's colonial dependencies in The Colonial Office List , though between 1926 and 1940 it was known as The Dominions Office and Colonial Office List . It later became known as the Commonwealth Relations Office Year Book and Commonwealth Office Year Book . In addition to

555-674: The Treaty of Paris 1783 , a new board, named the Committee of Council on Trade and Plantations (later known as 'the First Committee') was established under William Pitt the Younger , by an Order in Council in 1784. In 1794, a new office was created for Henry Dundas – the secretary of state for war , which now took responsibility for the Colonies. The office was renamed the Secretary of State for War and

592-579: The War Department . The War Office was renamed the War and Colonial Office in 1801, under a new Secretary of State for War and the Colonies , to reflect the increasing importance of the colonies. In 1825 a new post of Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies was created within this office. It was held by Robert William Hay initially. His successors were James Stephen , Herman Merivale , Frederic Rogers , Robert Herbert and Robert Henry Meade . From 1824,

629-547: The War Office in the lead up to the Napoleonic Wars , which became the War and Colonial Office to oversee and protect the colonies of the British Empire . The Colonial Office was re-created as a separate department 1854, under the colonial secretary . It was finally merged into the Commonwealth Office in 1966. Despite its name, the Colonial Office was responsible for much, but not all, of Britain's Imperial territories;

666-635: The XXI (2015–2019) and the XXII (2019-2024) governments ceased to expressly foresee the existence of ministries, with the portfolios of the ministers being instead referred as "government areas" and having, in theory, a more flexible organization. Although the term "ministry" has been eliminated from the Government communication and from most of the new published laws, it continues to be used in some legislation, especially those referring to some government areas that existed for

703-539: The Colonial Office was merged in 1966 with the Commonwealth Relations Office (which until 1947 had been the Dominions Office) to form the Commonwealth Office , while ministerial responsibility was transferred to the secretary of state for Commonwealth affairs (previously known as the secretary of state for Commonwealth relations ). In 1968, the Commonwealth Office was subsumed into the Foreign Office, which

740-463: The Colonies in 1801. In 1854, military reforms led to the colonial and military responsibilities of this secretary of state being split into two separate offices, with Sir George Grey becoming the first secretary of state for the colonies under the new arrangement. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Britain gained control over a number of territories with the status of " protectorate ". The ministerial responsibility for these territories

777-630: The Colonies . The Colonial Office did not have responsibility for all British possessions overseas: for example, both the British Raj and other British territories near India, were under the authority of the India Office from 1858. Other, more informal protectorates , such as the Khedivate of Egypt , fell under the authority of the Foreign Office . After 1878, when the Emigration Commission

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814-523: The Northern Department . The Colonial Secretary position was first created in 1768 to deal with the increasingly troublesome North American colonies, following passage of the Townsend Acts . Joint responsibility between the secretary and board first continued at this time, but subsequent diminution of the board's status let it to became an adjunct to the new secretary's department. Following

851-563: The Soviet Union were termed people's commissariats between 1917 and 1946. Ministry was used, thereafter. The term ministry has also been widely used in fiction, notably in satires and parodies. Portrayals of various fictional government ministries include: Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of

888-656: The UK ministry included a separate Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs . After the Cairo Conference held in March 1921, the Colonial Office was charged for the Palestine Mandate administration in substitution of the Foreign Office . On 16 April 1947, the Irgun placed a bomb at the Colonial Office which failed to detonate. The plot was linked to the 1946 Embassy bombing . After

925-414: The United Kingdom 's minister in charge of managing the British Empire . The colonial secretary never had responsibility for the provinces and princely states of India , which had its own secretary of state . From 1768 until 1966, the secretary of state was supported by an under-secretary of state for the colonies (at times an under-secretary of state for war and the colonies ), and latterly by

962-515: The bureaus. In Mexico , ministries are referred to as secretariats . In 1999, the ministries of the federal government of Belgium became known as federal public service , the exception being the Ministry of Defense which kept the original designation. In the Republic of China , ministry is used. In the People's Republic of China , ministry is used. In Portugal , the organization adopted by

999-495: The direction of one or more ministers or associate ministers, whether they are styled ministries or not. Each body also has an apolitical chief executive, and in ministries and departments these chief executives often have the title of Secretary. In Indonesia , the term ministry ( Indonesian : Kementerian ) is used. From the New Order to 2009, the office was known as department ( Indonesian : Departemen ). In Malaysia ,

1036-516: The loss of the American colonies, both the board and the short-lived secretaryship were dismissed by the king on 2 May 1782; both were abolished later by the Civil List and Secret Service Money Act 1782 (22 Geo. 3, c 82). Following this, colonial duties were given to the Home Secretary , then Lord Sydney . Responsibility for the Colonies in the years between 1782 and 1854 included : Following

1073-643: The ministry to a department, renaming it the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and giving it the responsibility of overseeing his government's levelling up policy . It was then subsequently reverted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government under the Starmer government in 2024. Some countries, such as Switzerland , the Philippines and the United States , do not use or no longer use

1110-447: The official List published by the Colonial Office, an edited version was also produced by Waterlow and Sons . It can be difficult to distinguish between the two versions in library catalogue descriptions. For example, The Sydney Stock and Station Journal of 3 December 1915 commented: This used to be the "Colonial Office Journal," but it looked – or sounded – too official, so they changed it to "The Colonial Journal." But it

1147-458: The other five, as well as the three territorial governments, use the term department . Despite the difference in nomenclature, both the provincial and federal governments use the term "minister" to describe the head of a ministry or department. The specific task assigned to a minister is referred to as his or her "portfolio". In the United Kingdom , all government organisations that consist of civil servants, and which may or may not be headed by

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1184-624: The protectorates fell under the purview of the Foreign Office , and the British Presidencies in India were ruled by the East India Company until 1858, when the India Office was formed to oversee the administration of the new Viceroyalty of India (the Crown ruled India directly through a Viceroy after the Indian Rebellion ), while the role of the Colonial Office in the affairs of the Dominions

1221-495: The term ministry is used for all but one government cabinet portfolio. The Prime Minister Department is the only portfolio that uses department instead. All government portfolios in the Peninsular Malaysia states use committee , while Sabah and Sarawak state governments following the federal government's style in naming certain portfolios. In Hong Kong , the term bureau is used, and departments are subordinate to

1258-403: The term "ministry" and instead call their main government bodies "departments". However, in other countries such as Luxembourg a department is a subdivision of a ministry, usually led by a government member called a secretary of state who is subordinate to the minister. In Australia at the federal level, and also at the state level, the term ministry refers to the ministerial office held by

1295-486: Was abolished, an Emigration Department was created in the Colonial Office. This was merged with the General Department in 1894, before its complete abolition in 1896. The increasing independence of the Dominions – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland and South Africa – following the 1907 Imperial Conference , led to the formation of a separate Dominion Division within the Colonial Office. From 1925 onwards

1332-548: Was initially held by the Foreign Secretary . By the early years of the twentieth century the responsibility for each of the protectorate territories had been transferred to the colonial secretary as well. The League of Nations mandated territories acquired as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 became a further responsibility of the Colonial Office in the aftermath of the First World War . In 1925, part of

1369-672: Was replaced by the Dominion Office in 1925. It was headed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies , known informally as the Colonial Secretary. Prior to 1768, responsibility for the affairs of the British colonies was part of the duties of the Secretary of State for the Southern Department and a committee of the Privy Council known as the Board of Trade and Plantations . Separately,

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