Civil Service Live
Profile: John Denham
Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills
John Denham was elected as MP for Southampton Itchen in 1992, with a current majority of 9302, having previously contested the seat in the 1983 and 1987 general elections.
Prior to being elected to Parliament, John was a Councillor at Hampshire County Council from 1981-89 and at Southampton City Council from 1989-92, chairing Southampton Council's Housing Committee from 1990-92.
John's Commons careers has included the appointed Opposition Spokesperson for Social Security from 1995-97, and then in the Department for Social Security as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State from 1997-98 and then Minister of State from 1998-99. From 1999-2001 John served as Minister of State in the Department of Health, and was then moved departments again to be Minister of State at the Home Office from 2001-03.
Having resigned his position at the Home Office in 2003, John chaired the Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs until 2007, and was also a member of the Liaison Commons Select Committee during this period.
In 2007, John was appointed by the current Prime Minister Gordon Brown to serve as Secretary of State to the newly formed Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), which overall responsibility for the Department.
John was born in 1953 and educated at Woodroffe Comprehensive School, Lyme Regis and Southampton University, where he became president of the Students Union. He was Head of Youth Affairs at the British Council from 1979 until 1983, and was responsible for public education and advocacy for War on Want from 1984 to 1988. He subsequently worked for Christian Aid, Oxfam and other development agencies.
John Denham is a member of AMICUS (MSF) and in June 2000 he was appointed by the Queen as a Privy Counsellor.