The Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is a senior official in the United Kingdom
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
who acts as
principal private secretary
A private secretary (PS) is a civil servant in a governmental department or ministry, responsible to a secretary of state or minister; or a public servant in a royal household, responsible to a member of the royal family.
The role exists in t ...
to the
prime minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...
. The holder of this office is traditionally the head of the
Prime Minister's Office in
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street in London, also known colloquially in the United Kingdom as Number 10, is the official residence and executive office of the first lord of the treasury, usually, by convention, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Along wi ...
. In the Civil Service, the role is currently graded as
director general
A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals''
) or general director is a senior executive (government), executive officer, often the chief executive offi ...
.
The current principal private secretary is Elizabeth Perelman, who assumed the position following the appointment of
Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak (; born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. He previously held two Cabinet of ...
as Prime Minister on 25 October 2022.
Recent history
During
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
's administration, the prime minister (as
Minister for the Civil Service
In the Government of the United Kingdom, the minister for the Civil Service is responsible for regulations regarding His Majesty's Civil Service, the role of which is to assist the governments of the United Kingdom in formulating and implementin ...
) modified the law under which the Civil Service operated (through an
Order in Council
An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' Ki ...
) which gave power to the newly created the role of
Downing Street Chief of Staff
The office of Downing Street Chief of Staff is the most senior political appointee in the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, acting as a senior aide to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The holder of the office retains a ...
(a politically appointed
special adviser) to give instructions to civil servants and outranked the principal private secretary in the Downing Street power structure. When
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
entered 10 Downing Street, he reversed the change to the Civil Service law.
When
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
became prime minister, he promoted his then principal private secretary to a new post of "
permanent secretary
A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day ...
, Downing Street"; a position which took over as the top civil servant in the Prime Minister's Office and for the first time the head of the office held the highest rank in the UK's civil service.
In 2012, when the post-holder,
Jeremy Heywood
Jeremy John Heywood, Baron Heywood of Whitehall, (31 December 1961 – 4 November 2018) was a British civil servant who served as Cabinet Secretary to David Cameron and Theresa May from 2012 to 2018 and Head of the Home Civil Service from 2014 ...
, was appointed
Cabinet Secretary; this new post ceased to exist, and the chief Civil Service official in 10 Downing Street reverted to being the Principal Private Secretary, which remains to this day.
The principal secretary runs the
private office of the prime minister, which includes the
private secretary for foreign affairs to the prime minister
The private secretary to the prime minister for foreign affairs is a senior official in the British Civil Service who acts as the private secretary for all matters concerning foreign policy and international affairs to the prime minister of the Un ...
.
List of principal private secretaries to the prime minister (from 1757, incomplete)
See also
*
Prime Minister's Office
*
References
{{Downing Street
British Prime Minister's Office
Civil service positions in the United Kingdom
Lists of British people