Permanent secretaries

What is a permanent secretary?

A permanent secretary is the most senior grade of civil servant. Permanent secretaries are those officials who head government departments, but the description also covers other civil servants who are also permanent secretary grade. They include some senior ambassadors and the heads of some non-ministerial departments, for example the national statistician at the Office for National Statistics. It can also be a title given to senior officials in the Cabinet Office and No.10.

Some departments also have a ‘second permanent secretary’ who is the second most senior official in a department but also holds a permanent secretary rank.

The next grade down from permanent secretary is director general.

How are permanent secretaries appointed?

Permanent secretaries are formally appointed by the prime minister, who is the minister for the civil service. However, the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 requires that all such appointments must ‘be on merit on the basis of fair and open competition’, meaning that appointments should not be partisan political choices. Appointments are managed by the Civil Service Commission, which oversees all civil service recruitment. Specifically, recruitment of permanent secretaries is overseen by the first civil service commissioner with support from senior permanent secretaries, the cabinet secretary and sometimes non-executive directors of departments.  

Appointments are usually expected to include an open competition where prospective candidates can apply. These are sometimes ‘internal’ competitions, meaning that only civil service candidates can apply, but for most new appointments ‘external’ competitions mean that people outside the civil service can also put their names forward. Candidates who are deemed appointable (‘above the line’) are presented to the prime minister who takes the final choice from a list of those suitable for the job. The prime minister or relevant secretary of state are also able to ask the civil service commission to reconsider their list of appointable candidates.

Sometimes permanent secretaries are appointed through ‘managed moves’, where a civil servant is moved into a vacancy at the same grade without any competition. The civil service’s Senior Leadership Committee makes the decision about whether a vacancy should be filled by managed move or competition.

How many permanent secretaries are there?

The government does not publish a single list of permanent secretaries, but based on multiple sources (the government’s senior officials ‘high earners’ dataset ¹⁴ Cabinet Office, Cabinet Office senior officials ‘high earners’ salaries’, 20 July 2023, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/senior-officials-high-earners-salaries  and the list of accounting officers ¹⁵ HM Treasury, List of Accounting Officers appointed by HM Treasury, 22 April 2025 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/accounting-officers-appointed-by-hm-treasury-july-2013/list-of-accounting-officers-appointed-by-hm-treasury ), there are around 40 permanent secretaries. These include the most senior officials in each government department and the devolved administrations; second permanent secretaries at the Treasury, Cabinet Office, Home Office, the Department for Transport, the Department of Health and Social Care and HMRC; the Director of Public Prosecutions; and other senior officials including the chief medical officer, chief scientific adviser, national statistician and first parliamentary counsel. 

Since the general election in 2024, there have been 13 changes to ‘head of department’ permanent secretaries – more than half of all departments are now under new leadership. A permanent secretary reshuffle of this scale after a change of government is not unusual; in the six months following the 2010 general election, nine out of 16 department heads had changed. ¹⁶ https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/Transitions%20Lessons%20Learned.pdf

What do permanent secretaries do?

Permanent secretaries who lead departments have a role that includes:

• policy adviser, particularly to their secretary of state
• day-to-day management of the department and its budget, often as ‘accounting officer’ for the department (see below)
• leadership of the department and oversight of its agencies and arm’s-length bodies
• managing their senior team.

Permanent secretaries also have other corporate duties. Some more senior ones sit on boards that oversee the management of the civil service including the Civil Service Board and the Senior Leadership Committee. Others also head up civil service professions and functions, overseeing the development of staff, reforms and leadership of those civil servants who sit in that profession or function.

Permanent secretaries meet at a ‘Wednesday Morning Colleagues’ (WMC) meeting chaired by the cabinet secretary and held in the Cabinet Office. 

How powerful are permanent secretaries?

Permanent secretaries can be very influential, both as the most senior policy adviser to ministers and through the executive leadership responsibilities they hold. They can also be important spokespeople for their departments inside and outside the civil service. However, in all cases they serve the minister who leads their department. If a permanent secretary does not agree with a decision where they feel public money will be inappropriately spent, they can seek a ‘letter of direction’ which means that the minister formally instructs them to proceed. 

How much are permanent secretaries paid?

The vast majority of permanent secretaries earn between £152,000 and £200,000 a year (as of 2024/25). The  ¹⁹ https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64ca69066ae44e000d11b414/_150k_2022_Master_.csv/preview  on ‘high earners’ in the civil service showed that, as of September 2022, then-cabinet secretary Simon Case earned between £205,000 and £210,000. The highest-paid official at permanent secretary level (though not a ‘head of department’ permanent secretary, and formally a CEO) was the CEO of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), earning between £380,000 and £385,000. The highest-paid official classified as a permanent secretary was the Chief Medical Officer (£205-210,000), while the best-paid head of department permanent secretary was the DWP permanent secretary (£190-195,000). 

How are permanent secretaries held accountable?

Head of department permanent secretaries are also ‘accounting officers’ for their departments. This means that they must account to parliament (specifically the Public Accounts Committee) for their organisation’s use of public money, against four tests of regularity, propriety, value for money, and feasibility.

Permanent secretaries will also be requested to appear in front of the select committee which oversees their department to answer questions on policy and management. But it is ministers who are accountable to parliament for policy decisions and their outcomes.

Permanent secretaries also answer to their ministers but are not directly managed by them. Permanent secretaries are line managed by the cabinet secretary and head of the civil service. They are judged on their performance, based on feedback from their secretaries of state. Between 2013-14 and 2015-16 permanent secretary objectives were published by the Cabinet Office, but these have been superseded by Outcome Delivery Plans (ODPs). Permanent secretaries will also be set individual objectives that are not published. 

Can ministers fire permanent secretaries?

Ministers have traditionally not directly dismissed permanent secretaries. The UK system of appointment by merit is intended to protect civil servants from losing their jobs for political reasons.

Some ministers have felt the system unduly protects civil servants from being held accountable for poor performance. Occasionally ministers fall out with their permanent secretaries or feel that a change at the top is needed. The informal practice is for the cabinet secretary and the prime minister to attempt to mediate and see if a solution can be found. There have been plenty of cases where a permanent secretary has been moved to another job, has retired with a payoff or been given a peerage or pay-out.

Some departures have been very controversial. In March 2020 the permanent secretary at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam, resigned and launched a claim for constructive dismissal against the Home Office. The cabinet secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, announced his own departure in June 2020 amidst heavy negative briefing in the papers against him and after reports that he was being forced out. In August 2020 the permanent secretary of the Department for Education, Jonathan Slater, left the civil service after the prime minister ‘concluded that there is a need for fresh official leadership at the Department for Education’ ²⁰ Cabinet Office and Department for Education, ‘Susan Acland-Hood made Acting Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education’, 26 August 2020, www.gov.uk/government/news/susan-acland-hood-made-acting-permanent-secretary-at-the-department-for-education . Like Sedwill, Slater stepped down, so was not formally fired, but the decision appeared to have been taken by the prime minister.