Work Experience?

How much help does a secretary of state’s climb up the ministerial ladder give them when they make it to the Cabinet? Much of it is gaining political skills and administrative skills. But its quite noticeable (perhaps exacerbated by the number of ministers who have sped into Cabinet without the previous tour around the lower reaches of government) how few of the existing Cabinet have served in that department previously.

2 of them, Mandelson and Hain, have been Secretary of State for their present department previously, as well as other posts.
1 of them, Straw, has only ever served as the ministerial heads of department, so hasn’t had the opportunity to gain experience lower down the government.
But of the remaining 16, only 5 have served lower down their present departmet, including the two deputies who were promoted to Cabinet at the last reshuffle:

• Darling, who was Chief Sec in the first NewLabour government in 1997
• Burnham, who’s last job before promotion to the Cabinet was as Minister of State in his present department
• Shaun Woodward, who only a Parliamentary Secretary in Northern Ireland before being leapfrogged into Cabinet
• Bob Ainsworth, Minister of State at Defence before promotion to Sec of State
• Andrew Adonis, Minister of State at Transport before promotion to Sec of State

This is an improvement on the previous position, before the last reshuffle, where only Woodward, Purnell and Darling amongst Cabinet member had served lower down in the department before landing a Cabinet job in it.