Distribution Network
Content
The Labour Party’s UK election win last month has brought a new corporate social responsibility minister into office.
Malcolm Wicks, the fifth CSR minister since the post was created in 2000, replaces Nigel Griffiths, who has been promoted to become deputy leader of the House of Commons.
Member of parliament for Croydon North since 1992, Wicks has a particular interest in social policy and was at one time a member of the social security select committee. The former university lecturer was director of the Family Policy Studies Centre and a social policy analyst at the Home Office before entering parliament.
In the days after the election it appeared the government considered moving the CSR role away from the Department of Industry, possibly to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. But it eventually decided to maintain the status quo.
Wicks moves over from his previous job as a minister of state for pensions, a post he had held since June 2001. He will hold the CSR brief alongside responsibilities for energy, nuclear security and export control – but unlike his predecessors will also look after sustainability and the environment, offering the chance for more ‘joined up thinking’ on such matters as they relate to business. How much time the 58-year-old Wicks devotes to his CSR role will depend on the lead given by his boss, Alan Johnson, who has been appointed secretary of state at the department. Johnson, a former postman, has a strong background in the trade union movement, from where he made his initial move into politics.
Malcolm Wicks, the fifth CSR minister since the post was created in 2000, replaces Nigel Griffiths, who has been promoted to become deputy leader of the House of Commons.
Member of parliament for Croydon North since 1992, Wicks has a particular interest in social policy and was at one time a member of the social security select committee. The former university lecturer was director of the Family Policy Studies Centre and a social policy analyst at the Home Office before entering parliament.
In the days after the election it appeared the government considered moving the CSR role away from the Department of Industry, possibly to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. But it eventually decided to maintain the status quo.
Wicks moves over from his previous job as a minister of state for pensions, a post he had held since June 2001. He will hold the CSR brief alongside responsibilities for energy, nuclear security and export control – but unlike his predecessors will also look after sustainability and the environment, offering the chance for more ‘joined up thinking’ on such matters as they relate to business. How much time the 58-year-old Wicks devotes to his CSR role will depend on the lead given by his boss, Alan Johnson, who has been appointed secretary of state at the department. Johnson, a former postman, has a strong background in the trade union movement, from where he made his initial move into politics.
Super Featured
No
Featured
No