Secretary for Security

The Secretary for Security is the member of the Government of Hong Kong in charge of the Security Bureau, which is responsible for public safety, security, and immigration matters.

The post was created in 1973 and since the Principal Officials Accountability System was adopted in 2002, the Secretary for Security has been a member of the Executive Council. Before 1973, the office was known as the Secretary for Defence.

Areas of responsibility include:

List of office holders

Political party: Nonpartisan

Defence Secretary, 1941

No.	Portrait	Name	Term of office	Governor	Ref
1		John Alexander Fraser 傅瑞憲	April 1941	25 December 1941	Mark Aitchison Young (1941)

Defence Secretaries, 1957–1969

No.	Name	Term of office	Governor	Ref
1	Alastair Todd 陶雅禮	1957	19 October 1960	Sir Alexander Grantham (1947–1957)
Sir Robert Brown Black (1958–1964)
2	Kenneth Strathmore Kinghorn 景韓	20 October 1960	22 November 1960
3	Donald Luddington 陸鼎堂	23 November 1960	17 December 1961
4	David Harold Jordan 左敦	18 December 1961	27 November 1966
Sir David Trench (1964–1971)
5	Peter Barry Williams 衛理欽	28 November 1966	8 February 1967
6	Jack Cater 姬達	9 February 1967	21 May 1967
7	Peter Barry Williams 衛理欽	22 May 1967	31 March 1968
8	Alastair Todd 陶雅禮	1 April 1968	9 August 1968
9	Ian Macdonald Lightbody 黎保德	10 August 1968	19 February 1969
10	Alastair Todd 陶雅禮	20 February 1969	1971

Secretaries for Security, 1973–1997

No.	Name	Term of office	Governor	Ref
1	George Peter Lloyd 羅以德	June 1973	March 1974	Sir Murray MacLehose (1971–1982)
2	Lewis Mervyn Davis 戴宏志	March 1974	October 1982
Sir Edward Youde (1982–1986)
3	David Jeaffreson 謝法新	November 1982	February 1988
Sir David Wilson (1986–1992)
4	Geoffrey Barnes 班乃信	February 1988	February 1990
5	Alistair Asprey 區士培	February 1990	February 1995
Chris Patten (1992–1997)
6	Peter Lai 黎慶寧	February 1995	30 June 1997

Secretaries for Security, 1997–present

No.	Portrait	Name	Term of office	Duration	Chief Executive	Term	Ref
1		Peter Lai Hing-ling 黎慶寧	1 July 1997	30 August 1998	1year, 60days	Tung Chee-hwa (1997–2002)	1
2		Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee 葉劉淑儀	31 August 1998	3 August 2003	4years, 337days
2
3		Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong 李少光	4 August 2003	30 June 2012	8years, 331days
Donald Tsang (2005–2012)	2
3
4		Lai Tung-kwok 黎棟國	1 July 2012	30 June 2017	5years, 0days	Leung Chun-ying (2012–2017)	4
5		John Lee Ka-chiu 李家超	1 July 2017	24 June 2021	3years, 359days	Carrie Lam (2017–2022)	5
6		Chris Tang Ping-keung 鄧炳強	25 June 2021	Incumbent	5years, 80days
John Lee (2022–present)	6