The Government of the United Kingdom is divided into departments. These,according to the government,are responsible for putting government policy into practice. There are currently 24 ministerial departments,20 non-ministerial departments,and 422 agencies and other public bodies,for a total of 465 departments.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England,along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwise devolved to the Scottish Government,Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive. It oversees the English National Health Service (NHS). The department is led by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care with three ministers of state and three parliamentary under-secretaries of state.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government,immediately junior to a Minister of State,which is itself junior to a Secretary of State.
His Majesty's principal secretaries of state,or secretaries of state,are senior ministers of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. Secretaries of state head most major government departments and make up the majority of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
Sir Mark Ivan Rogers is a former senior British civil servant who was the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the European Union from 4 November 2013 until his resignation on 3 January 2017.
Sir Thomas Whinfield Scholar is a British civil servant who served as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury from 2016 to 2022. He was previously the prime minister's adviser on European and global issues in the Cabinet Office from 2013 to 2016. He has been a director of the nationalised bank Northern Rock,and served as chief of staff for Gordon Brown.
Sir Jonathan Andrew de Sievrac Stephens,KCB is a retired British civil servant who was Permanent Secretary at the Northern Ireland Office between 2014 and 2020,and the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Culture,Media and Sport between 2006 and 2013. On his retirement,he was replaced as Permanent Secretary of the Northern Ireland Office by Madeleine Alessandri.
Jeremy John Heywood,Baron Heywood of Whitehall,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 to 2018. He served as the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 1999 to 2003 and 2008 to 2010. He also served as Downing Street Chief of Staff and the first Downing Street Permanent Secretary. After he was diagnosed with lung cancer,he took a leave of absence from June 2018,and retired on health grounds on 24 October 2018,receiving a life peerage;he died a fortnight later on 4 November 2018.
Sir Martin Eugene Donnelly,is a British former civil servant. He was Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Trade,until leaving the Civil Service on 24 March 2017.
Sir Robert John Devereux,KCB is a retired senior British civil servant,who served as Permanent Secretary for the Department for Transport from 2007 to 2011,and oversaw a new policy increasing the UK retirement age to 67 at the Department for Work and Pensions from 2011 until his retirement at 61 in January 2018.
Simon Gerard McDonald,Baron McDonald of Salford,is a British former diplomat who was the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service until September 2020. He was the last professional head of the Foreign &Commonwealth Office before the creation of the Foreign,Commonwealth and Development Office. He has been the Master of Christ's College,Cambridge,since September 2022.
Sir Philip McDougall Rutnam,is a British former civil servant who served as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from 2017 until his resignation on 29 February 2020. Prior to this,he was the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport for five years and also Acting Permanent Secretary at the Department for Business,Innovation and Skills in 2010.
Sir Richard Nicholas Heaton,KCB is a barrister and former senior British civil servant who was the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery from September 2015 until resigning in August 2020. He had previously served as Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary,and First Parliamentary Counsel. He currently serves as Warden of Robinson College,Cambridge.
Dame Melanie Henrietta Dawes is a British economist and civil servant. Since February 2020 she has been Chief Executive of Ofcom. She was previously the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Housing,Communities and Local Government,and before that worked at HM Treasury,HM Revenue and Customs,and in the Cabinet Office. She is a Trustee of the Patchwork Foundation,founded by Harris Bokhari.
Philip John Rycroft is a British civil servant who served as the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union from 2017 to 2019.
Jonathan Slater is a former high ranking British civil servant. From May 2016,he was Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education until his abrupt dismissal on 26 August 2020 following a controversy over national school examination grades.
The Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat (EDS) is a secretariat in the United Kingdom Cabinet Office.
Shona Hunter Dunn is a British civil servant,serving since October 2018 as the Second Permanent Secretary at the Home Office.
A permanent under-secretary of state,known informally as a permanent secretary,is the most senior civil servant of a ministry in the United Kingdom,charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis. Similar offices,often employing different terms,exist in many other Westminster-style systems and in some other governments. In the United States,the equivalent position is a Deputy Secretary of an executive department,though British permanent secretaries are career civil servants.
