Dave Penman

Last updated

Dave Penman (born 1966 or 1967) is a Scottish trade union leader who serves as general secretary of the FDA, a trade union for civil servants in the United Kingdom.

Contents

Early career

Penman began working as an administrative assistant for the Inland Revenue in Cumbernauld at the age of eighteen. In 1986, he transferred to the Department of Work and Pensions, where he became an executive officer. He soon became active in the National Union of Civil and Public Servants (NUCPS), and from 1992 represented it on the general council of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the first person to hold the "young workers" seat on the council. [1]

FDA career

In 1995, Penman began working full-time for the NUCPS as an organiser, then in 2000 he transferred to the FDA union, where he served as national officer. From 2002, he was the union's head of operations, and in 2011 he became its deputy general secretary.

Penman was elected as the union's general secretary in 2012. On election, he said that "you couldn’t put a cigarette paper between myself and [his predecessor] Jonathan [Baume] in terms of our approach to trade unionism", and identified the union's key challenge as maintaining pay and conditions to prevent a brain drain from the senior civil service. [1] Since September 2012, he had also served on the General Council of the Trades Union Congress. [2] Penman was re-elected in 2016 for a further five-year term. [3]

As general secretary, the FDA launched a legal challenge to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision not to sack Home Secretary Priti Patel after reports of bullying. The FDA argued that Johnson misinterpreted the definition of bullying in the workplace, and that Patel's presence in the role was detrimental to civil servants. In December 2021, the FDA lost the legal battle, with Penman stating "[w]hilst we are disappointed in the final judgment, there is a lot here that helps us protect civil servants from the conduct of ministers." [4]

In November 2022 Penman stated that several ministers under Sunak have bullied civil servants, that bullying has been a problem under successive governments, that civil servants have resigned because they felt they could do nothing about it. [5] Penman urged Rishi Sunak to reform the complaints system to help sort out a “toxic work culture” in Whitehall. [6]

Personal life

In his spare time, Penman supports Partick Thistle F.C. and enjoys crime fiction and the theatre. [1]

Related Research Articles

The FDA, formerly The Association of First Division Civil Servants, is a trade union for UK senior and middle management civil servants and public service professionals founded in 1919.

Jonathan Edward Baume was General Secretary of the FDA from 1997 until 2012 and a member of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) from 2001 to 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priti Patel</span> British politician (born 1972)

Priti Sushil Patel is a British politician who served as Home Secretary from 2019 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she was Secretary of State for International Development from 2016 to 2017. Patel has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Witham since 2010. She is ideologically on the right wing of the Conservative Party; she considers herself to be a Thatcherite and has attracted attention for her socially conservative stances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penny Mordaunt</span> British politician (born 1973)

Penelope Mary Mordaunt is a British politician who has been Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council since September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Portsmouth North since May 2010. She served as a junior minister under Boris Johnson, having previously served in Theresa May's Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development from 2017 to 2019, and as Secretary of State for Defence from May to July 2019. She ran twice for the Conservative party leadership in July–September, and October 2022, losing to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministerial Code</span> Rules for UK government ministers

The Ministerial Code is a document setting out "rules" and standards for government ministers in the United Kingdom. Separate codes exist for ministers of the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Welsh Government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mel Stride</span> British Conservative politician

Melvyn John Stride is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since October 2022. He previously served in the May Government as Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General from 2017 to 2019 and as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council from May to July 2019. He also served as Chair of the Treasury Select Committee from 2019 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Devon since 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gareth Johnson</span> British politician

Gareth Alan Johnson is a British politician and former lawyer who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Courts from September to October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he previously served as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from February to September 2022 and Assistant Government Whip from 2018 to 2019 and 2021 to 2022. Johnson was first elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dartford, winning the seat from Labour. He has been supportive of Leave Means Leave, a Eurosceptic pressure group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gavin Williamson</span> British Conservative politician

Sir Gavin Alexander Williamson is a British politician who most recently served as Minister of State without Portfolio from 25 October to 8 November 2022. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Staffordshire since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, Williamson previously served in Theresa May's Cabinet as Government Chief Whip from 2016 to 2017 and Secretary of State for Defence from 2017 to 2019, and as Secretary of State for Education under Boris Johnson from 2019 to 2021.

John Denby Sheldon is a British trade unionist and former General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, and its predecessors; NUCPS, PTC and the CSU.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rishi Sunak</span> Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2022

Rishi Sunak is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 25 October 2022 and Leader of the Conservative Party since 24 October 2022. Sunak served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022 and Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2019 to 2020, and he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond (Yorks) since 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Morton</span> British politician

Wendy Morton is a British politician who served as Chief Whip of the House of Commons and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from September to October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aldridge-Brownhills in the West Midlands since 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Heappey</span> British Conservative politician and soldier

James Stephen Heappey is a British politician serving as Minister of State for the Armed Forces since 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wells in Somerset since 2015. He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces from 2020 to 2022, before being promoted to Minister of State in July 2022. Before entering politics he was an officer in the British Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Foster (politician)</span> British Conservative politician

Kevin John Foster is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Torbay since 2015. He served as Minister of State for Transport from September 2022 until October 2022. Foster served under Home Secretary Priti Patel as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safe and Legal Migration from 2019 until September 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Vickers</span> British Conservative politician

Matthew Alexander Vickers is a British politician serving as the member of Parliament (MP) for Stockton South since 2019 and Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party since 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen MacNamara</span> British civil servant

Helen Towers is a former senior British civil servant who served as the Deputy Cabinet Secretary in the Cabinet Office from 2020 to 2021. She had previously worked as Director General for Propriety and Ethics in the Cabinet Office between 2018 and 2020. Before then she was the Director General for Housing and Planning in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. As a Director in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport she worked on the London 2012 Olympic bid and staging of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Earlier in her career she worked as Principal Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell and was responsible for setting up the Leveson Inquiry into British media ethics and the subsequent cross-party response.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election</span> British leadership election to replace Boris Johnson

The July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered by Boris Johnson's announcement on 7 July 2022 that he would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party after a series of political controversies. The leadership election was won in September by Liz Truss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election</span> British leadership election to replace Liz Truss

The October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered by Liz Truss's announcement that she would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, amid an economic and political crisis. Rishi Sunak was elected unopposed on 24 October and became prime minister on 25 October.

This is a list of public endorsements for declared candidates for the October 2022 leadership election for the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Premiership of Rishi Sunak</span> Current period of the Government of the United Kingdom

Rishi Sunak's term as the prime minister of the United Kingdom began on 25 October 2022 when he accepted King Charles III's invitation to form a new administration, following the resignation of his predecessor Liz Truss amid a government crisis. He is the first British Asian and the first Hindu to have held the office of prime minister. Sunak took office amid the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the cost of living crisis, both of which began earlier in the year during his tenure as chancellor under Boris Johnson.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Matt Ross, "Interview: Dave Penman", Civil Service World, 1 November 2012
  2. ↑ Trades Union Congress, "TUC General Council members Archived 2017-06-19 at the Wayback Machine "
  3. ↑ FDA, "Dave Penman biography Archived 2016-12-31 at the Wayback Machine "
  4. ↑ "Union loses legal challenge to PM's decision to back Priti Patel". BBC News. 6 December 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  5. ↑ Several ministers in Rishi Sunak's government 'have bullied civil servants', says FDA union chair Dave Penman Sky News
  6. ↑ Dominic Raab’s staff were ‘scared to go into his office’, ex-Foreign Office chief reveals The Independent
Trade union offices
Preceded by General Secretary of the FDA
2012–present		Succeeded by
Incumbent
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.