Peter Housden | |
---|---|
Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government | |
In office June 2010 –June 2015 | |
First Minister | Alex Salmond Nicola Sturgeon |
Preceded by | Sir John Elvidge |
Succeeded by | Leslie Evans |
Personal details | |
Born | Herefordshire,England | 7 December 1950
Alma mater | University of Essex |
Sir Peter James Housden KCB (born 7 December 1950) is a former public official who worked in local and central government. He served as Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government from June 2010 to June 2015. He was previously Permanent Secretary of the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Housden was born on 7 December 1950 and was educated at Grove Comprehensive School,Market Drayton,Shropshire. [1] He studied at the University of Essex where he graduated in 1973 with a First in Sociology. He began his career as a comprehensive school teacher in Shropshire and worked as an education officer in three county LEAs. [2]
Housden was appointed as Director of Education in Nottinghamshire in 1991. In 1994,Peter was appointed as Chief Executive and in his seven years in that post managed Nottinghamshire County Council through Local Government Review and a wide-ranging programme of modernisation. [3] In September 2000 he was seconded to the Audit Commission for six months to lead their work on the NHS national plan.
Housden joined the Department for Education and Skills in November 2001 as Director General for Schools. He had overall responsibility for all the Department's work in schools and in early years,and for current priorities on primary standards and secondary reform. He held this role until his appointment as Permanent Secretary of ODPM in 2005. [4]
He was appointed Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government from June 2010. [5] In his role as Scotland's Permanent Secretary,Sir Peter was the principal policy adviser to the First Minister and the Cabinet and led significant work on the integration of public services and new approaches to leadership in public services workforces. He was a member of the UK Civil Service Board and its Senior Leadership Committee. As Permanent Secretary in Scotland,his impartiality over Scottish Independence was called into question with for example the Labour leader Iain Gray accusing Housden of having "gone native", [6] but was consistently defended by the leaders of the UK Civil Service. [7]
Peter Housden delivered the Frank Stacey Memorial Lecture at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Public Administration Committee of the Joint University Council of the Applied Social Sciences where he made the case for a distinct 'Scottish approach' to government. [8]
Peter Housden is a Vice-President of the RNLI, [9] having previously served as a Trustee.
Peter Housden was the Chair of The Civil Service Club. [10] from 2017 to 2023.
Housden was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2010 Birthday Honours. [11]
In the United Kingdom,the Civil Service is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports His Majesty's Government,the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government,which is led by a cabinet of ministers chosen by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Andrew Turnbull,Baron Turnbull,is a British politician and civil servant who served as the head of Her Majesty's Civil Service and Cabinet Secretary between 2002 and 2005,when he was succeeded by Sir Gus O'Donnell. He now sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
Sir Robert Laurie Morant,was an English administrator and educationalist.
Augustine Thomas O'Donnell,Baron O'Donnell,is a former British senior civil servant and economist,who between 2005 and 2011 served as the Cabinet Secretary,the highest official in the British Civil Service.
Sir Alastair Muir Russell is a Scottish retired civil servant and former Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow,and Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland.
Sir Richard Clive Mottram is a former British civil servant,who retired in 2007 from his most recent senior post as Permanent Secretary,Intelligence,Security and Resilience in the Cabinet Office.
Sir Sumantra "Suma" Chakrabarti is a former British civil servant who served as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) from July 2012 to July 2020. He was previously the highest ranking Indian in Britain's civil service,serving as Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery from late 2007 until 2012.
The Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government is the most senior civil servant in Scotland who leads more than 7,000 staff within the Scottish Government and has oversight of around 125 agencies.
Sir John William Elvidge KCB,FRSE is the former Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government. He was appointed in July 2003,replacing Sir Muir Russell. He retired from the post in June 2010.
Sir Michael Charles Scholar,KCB is a British civil servant and former President of St John's College,Oxford.
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 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.
The Honours Committee is a committee within the Cabinet Office of the Government of the United Kingdom formed to review nominations for national honours for merit,exceptional achievement or service. Twice yearly the Honours Committee submits formal recommendations for the British monarch's New Years and Birthday Honours. Members of the Honours Committee—which comprises a main committee and nine subcommittees in speciality areas—research and vet nominations for national awards,including knighthoods and the Order of the British Empire.
Sir Peter Lewis Gregson,was a British civil servant. He was Permanent Secretary of the Department of Energy from 1985 to 1989,and of the Department of Trade and Industry from 1989 until his retirement in 1996.
Sir Christopher Stephen Wormald KCB is a British civil servant serving as Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care since 2016,having previously served as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education from 2012 to 2016.
Sir Charles Craik Cunningham,was a Scottish civil servant. From 1957 to 1966,he was Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office,its most senior civil servant. He had worked in the Scottish Office from 1929 until moving to the Home Office in 1957,and served as Secretary of the Scottish Home Department between 1948 and 1957.
Sir Peter Hugh Gordon Schofield,is a senior British civil servant,currently serving as Permanent Secretary for the Department for Work and Pensions since January 2018.
This is a list of Permanent Under-Secretaries for Scotland in the Civil Service. It should not be confused with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland.
Sir Peter Robert Baldwin,KCB was a British civil servant.
Sir Geoffrey Howes Chipperfield was a British civil servant.