0 a person who works for and has a slightly lower rank than the secretary (= person in charge) of a government department:
She's Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
1 an official in a government department who is one rank below the highest official:
These men - assistant commissioners, undersecretaries, inspectors - were the by-product of the fledgling but growing state bureaucracy.
There is nothing like giving an undersecretary or assistant secretary a straight responsibility to make him go off and do his homework.
Very senior officers—those of the rank of deputy undersecretary or above—have an entitlement to travel in a superior class by virtue of their grade.
The appointment was approved by the permanent undersecretary of state.
From that, right down the scale, from permanent undersecretaries downwards, there are to be corresponding increases.
I made that suggestion to the permanent undersecretary, who did not disagree with it.
If that were ever to be so, we should have gone along the way to government by undersecretaries, with responsibility allocated to them alone.
Those participating in the work of the task forces include officials of undersecretary, assistant secretary, principal and equivalent grades.
