Permanent Secretaries: Comparative Biography and Leadership in Whitehall

Abstract

The list of the 300 most powerful and influential people in Britain compiled in 1998 by a panel of pundits chaired by former Labour deputy leader Lord (Roy) Hattersley left seasoned Whitehall-watchers (and probably senior mandarins themselves) bemused (Observer, 1 Nov. 1998). Only eight of the permanent secretary heads of the main government departments made it into the final list of power-brokers. Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service Sir Richard Wilson was ranked 131 - behind 13 Cabinet ministers and four key government advisers - Alistair Campbell, the Prime Minister's Press Secretary [23]; Jonathan Powell, the PM's Chief of Staff [59]; Ed Balls, the Chancellor's economic adviser [115]; and Geoff Mulgan of the No. 10 Policy Unit [127]) - but also lower than pop stars Noel Gallagher [49] and Elton John [125], and former-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell [111]. The Permanent Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Turnbull [151], just sneaked in ahead of Delia Smith [152], but behind Damien Hirst [149] and Mick Jagger [139]. The head of the Home Office [268] was well behind footballer Alan Shearer [198]. And the permanent head of the Foreign Office, Sir John Kerr, was almost an after-thought at 289. Scattered throughout the list were eight other senior officiais, including the Treasury's chief economist [167], the heads of MI5 [168] and MI6 [213], the chief executive of the NHS [109], and one Next Steps agency chief executive (the head of the Child Support Agency [290]). But such highly-rated Whitehall operators as Michael Scholar (permanent secretary at Trade and Industry), Rachel Lomax (then permanent secretary at the Welsh Office, now at Social Security) and Michael Bichard (Department for Education and Employment) - and in fact most of the permanent secretaries - were banished altogether.