Oliver Letwin has been promoted to head up the Cabinet Office, the department with responsibility for the charity sector and civil society.

Matt Hancock, MP for West Suffolk, has been appointed as Minister for the Cabinet Office with responsibility for efficiency and Civil Service reform.

His biography on the Cabinet Office website says he will be responsible for civil society, among a number of other responsibilities.

Oliver Letwin

Prior to the election Letwin was a more junior minister within the Cabinet Office. He will now become a full member of the Cabinet, and will have the title of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Letwin, the Conservative MP for West Dorset, has previously served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He is widely regarded as having been one of the main architects of Conservative policy before the 2010 election.

Letwin was educated at Eton and Cambridge and pursued a career in academia and finance before standing for election. He is an advocate for privatisation and lower public spending.

He has previously said that charities should spend less time campaigning and more time solving problems. His biography on the Conservative home page says he has been a strong advocate for community-owned shops and pubs, and community transport schemes.

His predecessor was Francis Maude, who stood down as MP for Horsham at the last election. Maude has been appointed trade minister at the Foreign Office and Department for Business, Information and Skills.

John Penrose

John Penrose, Conservative MP for Weston-super-Mare, was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office this morning,with responsibility for constitutional reform. Penrose was subject to speculation this morning that he might take on the civil society brief.

Before the election, Penrose was part of the whips’ office, with responsibility for keeping order among MPs. Before that he was heritage minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, where he had responsibility for lotteries, until the job was scrapped.

Penrose holds a number of charitable roles outside of his role as an MP. He is listed as a patron of the south west branch of domestic violence charity the Mankind Initiative, as president of Weston-super-Mare YMCA and the Abbeyfield Weston-super-Mare Society, and a trustee of North Somerset Citizens Advice Bureau. 

An earlier version of this story said that the new minister for civil society had not been confirmed, and repeated speculation that the position might be taken by John Penrose, Conservative MP for Weston-super-Mare.

It has now been confirmed that Rob Wilson, who held the position before the election, will remain in post.