Dame Caroline Julia Dinenage (born 28 October 1971) is a British Conservative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gosport since 2010.
Caroline Dinenage was born on 28 October 1971 in Portsmouth, the daughter of television presenter Fred Dinenage and Beverley Summers.
She attended Wykeham House School, a private school for girls in Fareham, then Oaklands RC Comprehensive School, Waterlooville, before studying Politics and English at Swansea University.
Dinenage established her first manufacturing company at the age of 19, and was a director/company secretary of Dinenages Ltd for 20 years.
In May 1998 she was elected as the youngest member in Winchester District Council.
Dinenage stood as the Conservative candidate in Portsmouth South at the 2005 general election, coming second with 33.5% of the vote behind the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock.
At the 2010 general election, Dinenage was elected to Parliament as MP for Gosport with 51.8% of the vote and a majority of 14,413.
Dinenage worked with local partners to secure Enterprise Zone status for the Daedalus disused military airfield at Lee-on-the-Solent in August 2011.
Dinenage sat on the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee 2012–2015.
Dinenage successfully campaigned for a medal for the veterans of the Arctic convoys of World War II. She served as the vice-chair (Royal Navy) of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Armed Forces 2010–2014, and was a UK delegate to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and vice-chair of the NATO Science and Technology Sub-Committee.
Dinenage has campaigned for local road improvements in 2013, helping in May 2019 to secure £25.7m Government funding for the Stubbington Bypass, which has now been completed.
At the 2015 general election, Dinenage was re-elected as MP for Gosport with an increased vote share of 55.3% and an increased majority of 17,098.
In August 2016, Campaign group Action 4 Ashes praised Dinenage for her swift action as Justice Minister in introducing important changes to cremation regulation.
Dinenage was again re-elected at the snap 2017 general election with an increased vote share of 61.9% and an increased majority of 17,211.
In January 2018, Dinenage was appointed as Minister of State for Care at the Department for Health & Social Care. Dinenage was the first minister since Alistair Burt to hold the social care portfolio at Minister of State level, after Theresa May handed the portfolio to a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State under David Mowat and Jackie Doyle-Price. Dinenage's appointment was welcomed by learning disabilities charity Hft, who had campaigned for the restoration of the Minister of State role.
In June 2018, Dinenage launched the Carers Action Plan to support unpaid carers in England.
Following her campaign against proposals which would have seen the closure of the Royal Navy School of Engineering at HMS Sultan, in February 2019 the government indefinitely delayed the closure of the site.
In November 2019, she introduced plans for making learning disability and autism training mandatory for all Health and Social Care professionals.