The incumbent business secretary is Jonathan Reynolds who was appointed by Keir Starmer on 5 July 2024.

Corresponding to what is generally known as a commerce minister in many other countries, the business secretary's remit includes: During the government of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the then president of the Board of Trade, Edward Heath, was given in addition the job of secretary of state for industry, trade and regional development.

When Michael Heseltine held this office, he preferred to be known by the older title of President of the Board of Trade, and this practice was also followed by Ian Lang and Margaret Beckett.

[citation needed] Under Gordon Brown's premiership there were two re-namings of the role and three re-alignments of responsibility.

In his first cabinet of 2007, he called the post Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

With this change, the Better Regulation Executive was added to the department but the Office of Science and Innovation was lost.