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The UK government has appointed a new minister for sport & civil society following the resignation of Tracey Crouch MP in November.
Mims Davies announced her appointment on 05 November 2018. She was previously assistant government whip from January 2018 to November 2018, and parliamentary under secretary of state for Wales from July 2018 to November 2018. She is also the former chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Running in Westminster, and ran the London Marathon in 2017.
Previous charities minister, officially minister for sport, civil society, and loneliness, Tracey Crouch stepped down in November in protest of the government’s delaying of changes to gambling laws. She had spent three and a half years in the post.
Davies’s appointment has been broadly welcomed by the charity sector, although some disappointment was expressed that the government had not appointed a dedicated minister for civil society alone, with the view that a work programme encompassing sport was too broad.
Sir John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, said:
“We are looking forward to working with Mims Davies MP. Her breadth of parliamentary experience means she is well placed to implement and build on the ambitious changes outlined in the Civil Society Strategy. Given her passion for charity fundraising, we believe she will be a great addition to the team at DCMS.
“It is however disappointing that the Prime Minister did not take this opportunity to reinstate a stand-alone Minister for Civil Society. Given the challenges faced by the sector and the huge impact it has on people’s lives it would undoubtedly benefit from a dedicated Minister who can push forward the wide-ranging and ambitious plans set out earlier this year.”
Sir Stuart Etherington, CEO of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, also welcomed Davies’s appointment. He said:
“The new minister for Civil Society, Mims Davies MP, brings a wealth of experience – through her trusteeship of a small charity and strong relationships with a number of others. This will be important as she looks to implement the civil society strategy developed by her predecessor – embedding the strategy’s aspirations across government.”
Main image: Official UK Parliament portrait of Mims Davies, released under an Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) licence.
