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A permanent under-secretary of state, known informally as a permanent secretary, is the most senior civil servant of a ministry in the United Kingdom, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis. Permanent secretaries are appointed under a scheme in which the prime minister has the final say in the recruitment process; since 2015, the PM chooses directly from a list created by the Civil Service Commissioners rather than only having a veto over the Commissioners' preferred candidate.

Some permanent secretaries do not hold the position of permanent secretary but still hold that grade. The Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 explains that a permanent secretary, for the purposes of Section 2 of that Act, is a person serving in government in any of the following positions: Permanent Secretary, Second Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Secretary, Chief Executive of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, Chief Medical Officer, Director of Public Prosecutions, First Parliamentary Counsel, Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Head of the Civil Service, or Prime Minister's Adviser for Europe and Global Issues.

Similar offices, often employing different terms, exist in many other Westminster-style systems and in some other governments. In the United States, the equivalent position is a Deputy Secretary of an executive department, though British permanent secretaries are career civil servants whereas Deputy Secretaries are political appointees.

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

The permanent secretary, who in some but not all government departments is known formally as the permanent under-secretary of state, is the accounting officer for a department, meaning that they are answerable to Parliament for ensuring that the department appropriately spends money granted by Parliament. 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. In the 1970s, the permanent secretary to Tony Benn when he was Secretary of State for Industry was Peter Carey. After Benn spent government money on worker cooperatives, notably Meriden Motorcycle Co-operative, Carey went before the Public Accounts Committee and expressed the opinion that his minister's expenditure had been ultra vires. Benn was soon moved to the Department of Energy, while Carey received a knighthood in the following honours list.

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 reorganisation, virtually all departments had second permanent secretaries for a time, though this is no longer as common.

The most senior civil servant is the Cabinet Secretary, currently Simon Case; he is normally also the Head of the Home Civil Service. The holder of this office is distinct from other officials of permanent secretary rank within the Cabinet Office. By convention, the Prime Minister is Minister for the Civil Service and as such makes regulations regarding the service and has authority over it. These duties are delegated to the Minister for the Cabinet Office.

Honours

Permanent secretaries are usually created Knights/Dames Commander of the Order of the Bath after five or more years of service in the grade, or on retirement if not already holding the title (although Permanent Secretaries of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are usually created Knights/Dames Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George instead). The most senior permanent secretaries, such as the Cabinet Secretary, may be created Knights/Dames 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 permanent secretaries

Below is a list of the individuals in the UK government at the grade of permanent secretary. Some departments are currently led by persons that do not hold the rank of Permanent Secretary or do not have a civil service executive at all; these have not been included.

See also

• His Majesty's Civil Service
• His Majesty's Diplomatic Service
• Parliamentary private secretary
• Parliamentary under-secretary of state
• Permanent secretary
• Principal Secretary (disambiguation)
• Private secretary
• Undersecretary
• Yes Minister, a satirical examination of role of a permanent secretary

References

1. "New Permanent Secretary for the Department for Communities and Local Government". Department for Communities and Local Government. 8 January 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
2. "Lying in wait: who will be the permanent secretaries meeting the new ministers in 2015?". Institute for Government. 7 May 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
3. Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 Section 2(6); Schedule 1 Section 11(1).
4. Middleton, Charles R. (1974). "John Backhouse and the Origins of the Permanent Undersecretaryship for Foreign Affairs: 1828-1842". Journal of British Studies. 13 (2): 24–45. doi:10.1086/385657. ISSN 0021-9371. JSTOR 175086. S2CID 162648974.
5. FCDO Historians (1 April 2002). "The Permanent Under-Secretary of State: A Brief History of the Office and its Holders". Retrieved 5 September 2023.
6. "Simon Case appointed as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service". GOV.UK.
7. "The Cabinet Secretary has appointed Cat Little as the new Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet Office". GOV.UK. 22 February 2024. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
8. "New First Parliamentary Counsel Appointed". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
9. "Madeleine Alessandri CMG". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
10. Making Government Deliver for the British People, Government Policy Paper, published 7 February 2023
11. "DIT appoints Crawford Falconer as new Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser". GOV.UK. 16 June 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
12. "Susan Acland-Hood made Acting Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education". gov.uk. HM Government. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
13. "Our Management". GOV.UK. 30 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
14. "Appointment of new Permanent Secretary at Defra". GOV.UK. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
15. "Second Permanent Secretary appointed at Defra". GOV.UK. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
16. "Professor Dame Angela McLean". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
17. "New Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport". GOV.UK. 18 April 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
18. "Appointment of Peter Schofield as Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions". GOV.UK. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
19. "New Permanent Secretary for the Department of Health". GOV.UK. 15 January 2016. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
20. "New chief medical officer appointed". GOV.UK. 7 June 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
21. "New Second Permanent Under-Secretary in the FCDO". GOV.UK. 14 June 2023. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
22. "Matthew Rycroft CBE appointed Permanent Secretary at the Home Office". GOV.UK. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
23. "Simon Ridley". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
24. "Martin Clarke announced as new Government Actuary". GOV.UK. 5 March 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
25. "David Williams". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
26. "Paul Lincoln CB OBE VR". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
27. Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities website, accessed on 8 February 2023.
28. "Antonia Romeo". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
29. "Appointment of Jo Farrar as Second Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice". GOV.UK. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
30. "Ms Julie Harrison". GOV.UK. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
31. "New Director GCHQ announced". GOV.UK. 11 April 2023. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
32. "Susanna McGibbon appointed as Treasury Solicitor, HM Procurator General and Permanent Secretary, Government Legal Department". GOV.UK. 18 February 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
33. "Jim Harra takes top job at HMRC". Accountancy Daily. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
34. "Angela MacDonald". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
35. "Graeme Biggar appointed Director General of the National Crime Agency". National Crime Agency. 1 October 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
36. "Appointment of the new Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)". GOV.UK. 3 October 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
37. "New Director General of MI5 appointed". MI5.GOV.UK. 30 March 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
38. "About the national statistician". statisticsauthority.gov.uk. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
39. "About the national statistician". statisticsauthority.gov.uk. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
40. "New Head of the Civil Service announced". The Executive Office. 10 June 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
41. "New Permanent Secretary".
42. "New Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 July 2023.

External links

• List of current UK Permanent Secretaries – GOV.UK

• Civil Service (United Kingdom)
• Civil service positions in the United Kingdom