03 June 2005

In May the Ministerial team was confirmed at the Department for Education and Skills as follows:

• Minister of State (Schools and 14-19 Learners) - Jacqui Smith
• Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Schools) - Andrew Adonis

• Minister of State (Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education) - Bill Rammell
• Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Skills) - Phil Hope

• Minister of State (Children, Young People and Families) - Beverley Hughes
• Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Children, Young People and Families) - Maria Eagle

Biographies for the new team are as follows:

Minister of State (Schools and 14-19 Learners) - Jacqui Smith
Jacqui Smith entered Parliament for Redditch, Inkberrow, Feckenham and Cookhill in 1997. She was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the then Department for Education and Employment in 1999, and promoted to become Minister of State for Health in 2001 with responsibility for Social Services. Since June 2003 Jacqui Smith has been Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry with responsibility for Industry and the Regions, where she was also Deputy Minister for Women and Equality.

A graduate of Hertford College, Oxford, Jacqui Smith took up teaching in 1986 at Arrow Vale High School in Redditch. She taught Business Studies and Economics, rising to become Head of Economics at Haybridge High School in Hagley before the General Election in 1997. Jacqui grew up in Malvern, Worcestershire before moving to Redditch in 1986. She is married with two sons who attend the local first and middle schools.

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Schools) - Andrew Adonis
Andrew Adonis was until the election the Prime Minister’s adviser on education and public services, and was previously Head of the No 10 Policy Unit, joining the Prime Minister’s staff in 1998 after a career as an academic and journalist. Between 1988 and 1998 he was successively Fellow (in history and politics) of Nuffield College, Oxford; education correspondent and then Public Policy Editor at the Financial Times; and political columnist and leader writer at The Observer.

He is author or co-author of six books, including studies of the English class system (A Class Act, 1997), the rise and fall of the poll tax (Failure in British Government, 1994), the Victorian House of Lords (Making Aristocracy Work, 1993) and a collection of essays on Roy Jenkins published last year. Andrew was educated at Kingham Hill School and at Keble and Nuffield Colleges, Oxford. He is married with a son and daughter who attend local primary schools.

Minister of State (Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education) - Bill Rammell
Bill Rammell was elected Member of Parliament for Harlow in 1997. He was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell in June 2001, and promoted to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office in October 2002. Bill Rammell also served on the then Education and Employment Committee in 2000 and was also a member of a Select Committee on European Scrutiny in 2001.

Before entering Parliament, Bill Rammell was the general manager of the University of London Union, Head of Youth Services for Basildon Council and worked for the National Union of Students and British Rail. He was a member of Harlow District Council from 1985 to 1997. He was President of Cardiff University Students Union in 1982/83. Bill Rammell is married with two children who are educated in local secondary schools.

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Skills) - Phil Hope
Phil Hope was elected Member of Parliament for Corby and East Northamptonshire in 1997. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister and to Nick Raynsford as Minister of State for Housing and Planning. Phil was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in June 2003 with responsibility for building regulations, regulatory and public sector reform, e-local government, the Fire Service College and the Local Government Pension Scheme. At ODPM he also supported the Minister for Local Government, regional governance and fire, Nick Raynsford.

He was elected to Kettering Borough Council during the 1980s and Northamptonshire County Council between 1993 and 1997 where he chaired the Equal Opportunities Committee.

Formerly a teacher at Kettering School for Boys, he has also been a youth policy advisor to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, Head of the Young Volunteer Resources Unit at the National Youth Bureau and a management consultant to not-for-profit organisations. Phil Hope was educated at Wandsworth Comprehensive School and St Luke's College, Exeter. He is married with two children, a daughter who attends a local secondary school, and a son attending university.

Minister of State (Children, Young People and Families) - Beverley Hughes
Beverley Hughes was elected Member of Parliament for Stretford and Urmston in 1997. From June 1997 she served as a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee until her appointment as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Hilary Armstrong, Minister of State for Local Government and Housing in July 1998. In July 1999, she was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the then Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, with responsibility for local government, regeneration, regions, planning and construction. In June 2001, she was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office. Her most recent appointment was in May 2002 as Minister of State, with responsibility for Citizenship, Immigration and Counter Terrorism.

Before entering Parliament Beverley Hughes qualified and worked in Merseyside as a probation officer and subsequently became Senior Lecturer and Head of Department in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Manchester. She was elected to Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council in 1986, and was Leader of the Council from 1995 until her election to the House of Commons in 1997. Beverley Hughes was educated at Ellesmere Port Girls' Grammar School, Manchester University and Liverpool University. She is married with three children who all attended local primary and secondary schools.

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Children, Young People and Families) - Maria Eagle
Maria Eagle was elected Member of Parliament for Liverpool, Garston in 1997. She was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Work Pensions in 2001 as Minister for Disabled People. She served on the Public Accounts Committee from 1997 to 1999) and Parliamentary Private Secretary to Health Minister John Hutton from 1999 to 2001.

Ms Eagle qualified as a solicitor in 1992 specialising in employment law. She was educated at Formby High School, Pembroke College, Oxford and Lancaster Gate College of Law.