Matt Hancock named as health and social care secretary

On 9 July 2018, the Prime Minister Theresa May appointed Matt Hancock to replace Jeremy Hunt as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, following Hunt’s move to foreign secretary. Hunt had held the post for nearly 6 years and was the longest-serving health secretary since the creation of the NHS in 1948. Matt Hancock had previously served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since January 2018.

Policy priorities on taking office

On 20 July 2018, Matt Hancock delivered a speech at West Suffolk Hospital, setting out his three ‘early priorities’ for the health and social care system: workforce, technology and prevention. On workforce, the health secretary promised better training for staff across the NHS and social care. He also highlighted problems with the lack of diversity in senior leadership and discrimination in the workforce. He announced that he would establish a ‘consultation exercise on workforce issues’.

Hancock said new technology in health and care had the potential to achieve a ‘holy trinity of improving outcomes, helping clinicians and saving money’. He announced a ‘half a billion-pound package’ for ‘innovative technology’, including £400m for new technology in hospitals and £75m for NHS trusts to replace paper-based systems with electronic systems.

The health secretary described ‘prevention’ as ‘keeping people healthy and treating their problems quickly, empowering people by giving them the tools they need to manage their own physical and mental health needs closer to home, delivering care in the right place in settings that suit them and their needs’. Hancock stated that achieving this would involve the integration of the NHS, social care and wider services in local government.

Tenure and resignation

Matt Hancock served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care during the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in early 2020. He was a key figure in the UK government’s pandemic response. Hancock resigned in June 2021, following the release of video footage showing him breaking social distancing guidance by embracing a colleague. Sajid Javid replaced him as health secretary.