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In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister's Office supports the work of the
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
in his executive, parliamentary and party-political roles. The office is located in
10 Downing Street 10 Downing Street in London is the official residence and office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister of the United Kingdom. Colloquially known as Number 10, the building is located in Downing Street, off Whitehall in th ...
and the terms ''Downing Street'' and ''Number 10'' are often used as metonyms for the office itself. Technically the Prime Minister's Office is part of the
Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...
, although in practice the two are said to be 'organisationally distinct'. The Prime Minister's Office is staffed by a mix of career
civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
, who are required to be politically impartial, and temporary civil servants known as special advisers, who are by contrast political appointees. The highest ranking civil servant position is the Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister; the most senior special adviser post is the Downing Street chief of staff. Since the Prime Minister's Office is formally part of the Cabinet Office, it reports directly to the
Cabinet Secretary A cabinet secretary is usually a senior official (typically a civil servant) who provides services and advice to a cabinet of ministers as part of the Cabinet Office. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powe ...
. A communicating door between 10 Downing Street and 70 Whitehall provides a select number of people with access between these two offices.


Current positions within the Office of the Prime Minister


Civil Service appointments

As of July 2023, the following positions in the Prime Minister's Office were occupied by senior civil servants: * Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister * Director, No. 10 Delivery Unit * Director, No. 10 Policy Unit * Director of Data Science & Chief Analyst * Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the PM * Deputy Director, No. 10 Delivery Unit * Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson * Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (International) (The above list only includes the most senior civil service appointments, namely those in SCS Pay Bands 2 and 3.)


Political appointments

As of 2024 the following senior roles at Number 10 were occupied by political appointees. Since 2005, Number 10's Direct Communication Unit has not used its staff's real names on signed correspondence to MPs and members of the public; this is for security reasons.


History

The role of prime minister came into being gradually over time (and the Prime Minister's Office likewise). The beginnings of an office can be seen in the 18th century, when the first Private Secretary was appointed.


Private Secretaries and the Principal Private Secretary

During his second term of office as Prime Minister (1757–62) the Duke of Newcastle appointed a Private Secretary. Unlike the
Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...
clerks, who supported his work as
First Lord of the Treasury The First Lord of the Treasury is the head of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury exercising the ancient office of Lord High Treasurer in the United Kingdom. Traditional convention holds that the office of First Lord is held by the Prime Mi ...
, the Private Secretary was a personal appointment, paid for by Newcastle himself. Similar appointments were made by his successors. In 1806, the role of Private Secretary to the Prime minister was placed on an official footing, when his salary began to be paid from public funds. In 1813 funding was made available for a second Private Secretary to be added to the establishment. The Private Secretaries supported the Prime Minister both administratively and politically. During the 19th century it became the norm for one of them to be appointed from within the civil service (usually one of the Treasury clerks was seconded to the role), and the other to be appointed from outside the civil service (sometimes a Member of Parliament was appointed, in which case he was unpaid); the latter usually had seniority. Both were seen as personal and to some extent political appointees: it was usual for them to be replaced when there was a change of prime minister, and this was invariably the case when there was a change of government.
Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...
had become entitled to a third Private Secretary in 1873, when he held the office of
Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...
concurrently with that of prime minister; afterwards a third Private Secretary remained on the Prime Minister's establishment. At least one of the three was a civil servant, but the senior (or principal) Private Secretary was normally a political appointee. A fourth Private Secretary was provided for the Prime Minister in the 1920s, a fifth in the 1940s and a sixth in the 1960s. The official designation of one of their number as the 'Principal Private Secretary' dates from 1929. By this time the office had begun to be more civil service dominated: between 1922 and 1928, despite several changes of prime minister and a change of government from Conservative to Labour, three of the four Private Secretaries had remained in post; since when the post of Principal Private Secretary has almost invariably been occupied by a career civil servant.


Private Office of the Prime Minister

The designation of the Private Secretaries and others as the Private Office of the Prime Minister would seem to date from the time of Lloyd George. It served to differentiate them from the separate (and relatively short-lived) Prime Minister's Secretariat which he established, as well as distinguishing them from the new Cabinet Secretariat (which would later evolve into the Cabinet Office). The establishment of the Private Office also coincided with a marked increase in the number of clerical staff employed at Number 10; by the 1950s there were over fifty clerks, typists, messengers and cleaners on the books.


Press Office

A full-time Press Officer was first appointed to the Prime Minister's Office in 1931, who took on responsibility for public relations (formerly part of the private secretaries' remit). Over time, the press office grew in significance as media attention on the Prime Minister intensified.
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
's press secretary, Bernard Ingham, was one of her most important advisors.
Alastair Campbell Alastair John Campbell (born 25 May 1957) is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster, and activist, who is known for his political roles during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party. Campbell worked as Blair's spokesman an ...
's influence, as press secretary under
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...
, was even greater, and in 2000 he was given a more senior role as Downing Street Director of Communications, with the authority to issue directives to civil servants.


Political Office

By the 1930s, the Private Office had largely become the preserve of civil servants, leaving no obvious place in the structure for the Prime Minister's political advisers. This was addressed by
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...
, who in 1964 established a Political Office in Number 10, staffed by a number of 'special advisers', who were political appointees. To begin with the Principal Private Secretary tried to maintain a strict separation between the work of the private office and that of the political office, but there soon came to be a 'considerable overlap of responsibilities', reflecting more accurately the relationship between politics and administration at the top of government. By the time
John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Ton ...
took over as prime minister, the Political Office was a loose grouping which included: * the Political Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (responsible for links between the Prime Minister and party headquarters, and with constituency organisations around the country); * the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (focused on relations with the parliamentary party); * a constituency secretary; * a diary secretary / personal assistant.


Policy Unit

The Policy Unit was also established by Harold Wilson, ten years later (in 1974). Its head is a political appointee. Its remit was to advise the Prime Minister on policy with a view to improving co-ordination across different government departments.


Chief of Staff

The Chief of Staff is a political appointee, usually the most senior of the Downing Street special advisers. The first prime minister to appoint a chief of staff was Margaret Thatcher in 1979; David Wolfson was one of her closes aides, and when he resigned in 1985 he was not replaced. The role was re-introduced to Downing Street with the appointment of Jonathan Powell under Tony Blair, in 1997. At times the post has been left vacant, including for a time under
Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British 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. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...
(from January 2008 to May 2010) and also for a time under
Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...
(from July 2019 to November 2020). Brown initially appointed a 'Chief of Strategy and Principal Adviser' instead, but he resigned eight months later. Under Johnson, the role was split into two positions with Dominic Cummings serving as the chief adviser to the prime minister, and Edward Lister as chief strategic adviser to the prime minister. After Cummings's departure, Lister served as acting chief of staff before being replaced by Dan Rosenfield, who officially assumed the role in January 2021.


Reconfiguration of the office in the 21st century

At the start of the 21st century the Prime Minister's Office consisted of: * The No. 10 Private Office (coordination of government, diary management and correspondence); * The No. 10 Press Office (press and public relations); * The No. 10 Political Office (political relations, parliamentary affairs and constituency liaison); * The No. 10 Policy Unit (policy research, review and advice). Under
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...
in 2001, the office was reorganised into three directorates: * Policy and government *:Took over the functions of the private office and policy unit. Prepares advice for the PM and coordinates implementation of policy across departments. * Communication and strategy ** Press office: responsible for relations with the media ** Direct communications unit ** Research and information unit: provides factual information to No. 10 ** Strategy unit * Government and political relations *:Handles party and constituency matters The reorganisation brought about the fusion of the old Prime Minister's Office and other Cabinet Office teams, with a number of units (including the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit) now reporting directly into the Prime Minister's Office. Led by special advisers, these new specialist units were conceived in order 'to drive change across government'. All these changes were intended to strengthen the PM's office. Some commentators have suggested that they created something similar to a Prime Minister's Department; whereas the Institute for Government has written that the Cabinet Office (of which the Prime Minister's Office is a component) "is a long way from becoming a fully fledged premier's department", primarily based on the fact that the prime minister "largely lacks the direct policy responsibilities, either in statute or by convention under the Royal Prerogative, possessed by secretaries of state, who have substantial budgets voted to them by Parliament".


Permanent Secretary

Occasionally, and briefly, a senior civil servant has been appointed as Downing Street
Permanent Secretary A permanent 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 activities. Permanent secretaries are ...
, with seniority over the other civil servants in Number 10 (including the Principal Private Secretary).
Jeremy Heywood Jeremy John Heywood, Baron Heywood of Whitehall, (31 December 1961 – 4 November 2018) was a British Her Majesty's Civil Service, civil servant who served as Cabinet Secretary (United Kingdom), Cabinet Secretary to David Cameron and Theresa Ma ...
served in this role from 2010 to 2012, and Simon Case from May to September 2020. It has been said that the creation of the role served (on both occasions) 'as a way to convince someone back into government after they have left'. In 2022, in her report about parties being held on Government premises during the COVID pandemic, Sue Gray concluded that the size of the Downing Street operation had increased without the structures to support them, and "too much responsibility and expectation is placed on the senior official whose principal function is ... support of the Prime Minister". She said this needed to be addressed as a priority, and
Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...
agreed to the Office of the Prime Minister becoming a Government department."Johnson promises No 10 shake-up after Gray finds failures", ''BBC News'', 31 January 2022
. Retrieved 9 February 2022
Several changes in staffing took place early in February 2022 and the role of Downing Street Permanent Secretary was set to be revived, with Samantha Jones holding the position on an interim basis; but the plans were not carried forward after Johnson's resignation as prime minister.


References


Notes

{{Downing Street British Prime Minister's Office
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...