Permanent secretary

The Permanent Secretary, in most departments officially titled the Permanent Under-secretary of State or PUS (although the full title is rarely used), is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis.

Permanent Secretaries (known by other names in some departments; see below) are the non-political civil service heads (and "accounting officers") or chief executives of government departments, who generally hold their position for a number of years (thus "permanent") at a ministry as distinct from the changing political Secretaries of State to whom they report and provide advice.

History

When Lord Grey took office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1830, Sir John Barrow was especially requested to continue serving as Secretary in his department (the Admiralty), starting the principle that senior civil servants stay in office on change of government and serve in a non-partisan manner. It was during Barrow's occupancy of the post that it was renamed “Permanent Secretary”.

Role

Permanent secretaries are the accounting officers for departments, meaning that they are answerable to Parliament for ensuring that the department spends money granted by Parliament appropriately. Permanent secretaries are thus frequently called for questioning by the Public Accounts Committee and Select Committees of the House of Commons. The permanent secretary usually chairs a department's management board which consists of executive members (other civil servants in the department) and non-executive directors.

Some larger departments also have a second permanent secretary who acts as deputy. In the early 1970s, in a major reorganisation of Whitehall, many smaller ministries were amalgamated into larger departments. Following this re-organisation, virtually all departments had second permanent secretaries for a time, thought this is no longer as common.

The overall head of the civil service is the Cabinet Secretary, currently Sir Jeremy Heywood, but the Head of the Home Civil Service is Sir Bob Kerslake. The holder of this office is distinct from other officials of permanent secretary rank within the Cabinet Office.

Honours

By tradition, permanent secretaries are usually created a Knight or Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath at some point after their appointment or on retirement if not already holding the title (although the Permanent Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will be created a Knight or Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George instead). The most senior permanent secretaries, such as the Secretary of the Cabinet, may be created a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, and even be given a life peerage after retirement. For salary comparison purposes, the permanent secretary is deemed broadly equivalent to a General and to a High Court judge.

Current UK permanent secretaries

There are currently 42 individuals in UK government departments with the grade of Permanent Secretary or Second Permanent Secretary, though not all use these titles.

Department	Jobholder	Title
Departments of State
Cabinet Office
	Sir Jeremy Heywood, KCB CVO	Cabinet Secretary
	Sir Bob Kerslake	Head of the Home Civil Service and Permanent Secretary, DCLG
	Ian Watmore	Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office and Chief Operating Officer, Efficiency and Reform Group
	Jon Day	Chair, Joint Intelligence Committee
	Ivan Rogers	Prime Minister's Adviser on Europe and Global Issues; Head of the European and Global Issues Secretariat
	Sir Kim Darroch, KCMG	National Security Advisor
	Richard Heaton	First Parliamentary Counsel
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills	Martin Donnelly	Permanent Secretary
Department for Communities and Local Government	Sir Bob Kerslake	Permanent Secretary
Department for Culture, Media and Sport	Jonathan Stephens	Permanent Secretary
Ministry of Defence	Ursula Brennan	Permanent Secretary
	tbc	Second Permanent Secretary
	Bernard Gray	Chief of Defence Materiel
	Professor Sir Mark Welland, FRS FREng	Chief Scientific Adviser, MoD
Department for Education	Chris Wormald	Permanent Secretary
Department of Energy and Climate Change	Moira Wallace	Permanent Secretary
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	Bronwyn Hill	Permanent Secretary
Foreign and Commonwealth Office	Simon Fraser, CMG	Permanent Under-Secretary and Head of the Diplomatic Service
Department of Health	Una O'Brien, CB	Permanent Secretary
	Professor Dame Sally Davies, DBE	Chief Medical Officer for the United Kingdom and the National Health Service
	Sir David Nicholson, KCB CBE	Chief Executive, National Health Service (NHS) England
Home Office	Dame Helen Ghosh, DCB	Permanent Secretary
Department for International Development	Mark Lowcock	Permanent Secretary
Ministry of Justice	Sir Suma Chakrabarti, KCB	Permanent Secretary and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery
Department for Transport	Philip Rutnam	Permanent Secretary
HM Treasury	Sir Nicholas Macpherson, KCB	Permanent Secretary
	Tom Scholar	Second Permanent Secretary and Managing Director of Public Services and Growth
Department for Work and Pensions	Robert Devereux	Permanent Secretary
Non-Ministerial Departments
Crown Prosecution Service	Keir Starmer, QC	Director of Public Prosecutions,
Government Office for Science	Professor Sir John Beddington, CMG	Her Majesty's Government Chief Scientific Adviser
HM Revenue and Customs	Mike Clasper	Chairman
	Lin Homer	Chief Executive
	Dave Hartnett, CB	Second Permanent Secretary for Tax
Security Service (formerly MI5)	Jonathan Evans	Director-General
Secret Intelligence Service (formerly MI6)	Sir John Sawers, KCMG	Chief or 'C'
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)	Iain Lobban	Director
Treasury Solicitor's Department	Paul Jenkins, QC	First Treasury Solicitor
UK Statistics Authority	Jil Matheson	National Statistician
Devolved Administrations
Northern Ireland Executive	Dr Malcom McKibbin	Permanent Secretary and Head, Northern Ireland Civil Service
Scottish Government	Sir Peter Housden, KCB	Permanent Secretary
Welsh Government	Dame Gillian Morgan, DBE	Permanent Secretary

Outside the UK

In some countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, the popular term for the equivalent position is now “Principal Secretary”.

In Australia, the position is called the "Departmental Secretary", “Secretary of the Department”, or “Director-General of the Department” in some states and territories.

In Canada, the position is “Deputy Minister”, as the political head of a department/ministry is generally called a Minister.

In Germany, the equivalent office is called Staatssekretär (state secretary).

In Hong Kong, heads of policy bureaux, i.e., Secretaries, were filled by civil servants until their titles were changed to Permanent Secretaries in 2002, when political appointees filled the positions of secretaries under the second Tung Chee Hua government. Since August 2005, the Office of the Chief Executive also has a permanent secretary. His ranking is, however, lower than most other permanent secretaries according to the pay scale.

In the Republic of Ireland, the position of "Secretary-General" of a Department is almost identical to that of a Permanent Secretary in the British Civil Service, with the exception that since the introduction in the mid-1990s of the Strategic Management Initiative, the post is no longer permanent, but carries a seven year time limit. This coincided with the introduction of the change of title from the previous title of “Secretary”. Irish government departments may also have a “Second Secretary”, which is equivalent to the Second Permanent Secretary grade in the British Civil Service. See also Civil service of the Republic of Ireland.

In Republic of Italy the highest Civil Service official in a Ministry or Department is either a Segretario Generale (Secretary-General) or a Direttore Generale (Director-General), while the position of Sottosegretario di Stato (Under-Secretary of State) is a political one and ranks below the Ministro Segretario di Stato (Minister-Secretary of State, the head of a Ministry or Department) or the Vice Ministro (Deputy-Minister), both political posts as well.

In New Zealand, the civil service head of a ministry is ordinarily entitled “Chief Executive”, though in some cases (such as the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service) the title is “Director-General”. Organisations with enforcement powers, such as the Inland Revenue Department, the New Zealand Police, and the New Zealand Customs Service are headed by commissioners. Civil service heads are officially employed by the State Services Commission, further separating them from the politicians who hold ministerial positions.

In Singapore, Permanent Secretaries have to retire after a 10-year term even if they are younger than the official retirement age of 62 in Singapore, starting in 2000 when the Public Service Leadership scheme was introduced. This is to provide opportunities for younger officers from the Administrative Service – the elite arm of the Civil Service – to rise up the rank.

In Sri Lanka, the post of Permanent Secretary is the civil service head of the ministry. Normally referred to as Secretary, non civil service, political appointees are regularly appointed.

See also

• Cabinet Secretary
• British Civil Service

External links

• List of current UK Permanent Secretaries