Katherine Fletcher has been appointed as the new roads minister in the Department for Transport (DfT), with Robert Courts having apparently been sacked after overseeing Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in his role as the transport civil contingencies minister.
The latest changes followed other ministerial changes before the late queen died and means that the department, led by Anne-Marie Trevelyan as secretary of state, currently has four female ministers and one male.
At the time of publication, the DfT website still listed Mr Courts as a minister and had not been updated to reflect the current ministerial briefs, thereby listing Baroness Vere as responsible for roads, including ‘Highways England’.
However, Ms Fletcher tweeted that she has the ‘roads and regions’ brief, while former roads minister Baroness Vere said she is now responsible for aviation and local transport.
As a civil engineers’s daughter I spent many hours on road construction sites in the north as a child. It’s an honour now to drive our future roads & regions forward with @transportgovuk teams. https://t.co/KRaj6J12Kn
— Katherine Fletcher MP (@K_Fletcher_MP) September 22, 2022
Ms Fletcher has been appointed to the junior ministerial role of parliamentary under secretary of state at the DfT, as well as parliamentary secretary (minister for women) at the Cabinet Office.
She tweeted: ‘As a civil engineers’s daughter I spent many hours on road construction sites in the north as a child. It’s an honour now to drive our future roads & regions forward with @transportgovuk teams.’
Mr Courts, who had been a parliamentary under secretary since September 2020 and had responsibility for aviation, maritime and security and civil contingencies, tweeted: ‘I am sad to be leaving government & to no longer have the honour of representing our country’s truly world-leading aviation & maritime sectors.
'Thank you to the talented team at @transportgovuk with whom I had the privilege of working in truly tumultuous, tough, historic times.’
In a two-page letter, he listed his achievements in the role, including dealing with Covid and ‘overseeing both HM Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh’s funerals as the Transport Civil Contingencies Minister’.
I am sad to be leaving government & to no longer have the honour of representing our country’s truly world-leading aviation & maritime sectors.
— Robert Courts MP (@robertcourts) September 21, 2022
Thank you to the talented team at @transportgovuk with whom I had the privilege of working in truly tumultuous, tough, historic times. pic.twitter.com/ieypcBMYar
