Gus O’Donnell appointed Cabinet Secretary
Sir Gus O’Donnell has been appointed as Cabinet Secretary and head of the home civil service.
This means the former Permanent Secretary to the Treasury is now the UK’s most powerful civil servant.
The current Cabinet Secretary Sir Andrew Turnbull is retiring in the summer.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “Sir Gus O’Donnell has a distinguished record of achievement in his career within Government. He has driven through real change and shown strong leadership at the Treasury and performed some of the most demanding jobs in the civil service with great skill.”
Mr Blair added: “He is ideally suited to lead the civil service through the coming period of change as we move to the next level of public service delivery and reform.”
Sir Gus said: “I am deeply honoured to be appointed. I passionately believe that our excellent, professional and impartial civil service is an asset to the country.
“My priority will be to make sure that across the civil service we have the right skills to deliver the high quality services the public deserves and demands, and to build strong partnerships with those elsewhere in society who deliver these services. To this end we need to inject even more pace and passion into the reform programme already in place under Sir Andrew’s outstanding leadership”.
Sir Gus has been Permanent Secretary at the Treasury since 2002, having joined the Treasury as an economist in 1979.
Senior civil service union the FDA welcomed the appointment.
General secretary Jonathan Baume said: “Sir Gus is an excellent choice and very good news for the civil service. He has all of the necessary skills to lead the civil service during a period of continuing change and reform. He will also be able to restore confidence in effective Cabinet government.”
He added: “Civil servants have been angered and depressed by regular attacks in recent months by politicians of all parties. The debate on public expenditure has been presented by politicians as one between a wasteful civil service compared to the contribution made by doctors, nurses, teachers and others. Sir Gus will be able to provide the visible leadership that the civil service now requires to help restore morale internally and enhance the public’s understanding of the immense contribution that the civil service makes to public life.”
