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Last updated: 25 November 2008
The Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts 2007-08 incorporates machinery of government changes and working groups such as the Prime Minister's Office within its departmental boundary.
Building a better department
On 1 April 2007:
Following the machinery of government change, effective 1 April 2007, which brought the Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords, the Leader and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, and the Offices of the Government Whips in the House of Commons and the House of Lords from the Privy Council Office [External website] into the Cabinet Office, the following Ministers became part of the Cabinet Office Ministerial team:
The Rt Hon Baroness Amos of Brondesbury as Lord President of the Privy Council and Leader of the House of Lords.
The Rt Hon Jack Straw MP as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons.
Paddy Tipping MP as Parliamentary Secretary and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons.
During the financial year 2007-08, the following changes to the Cabinet Office's Ministerial team occurred.
On 28 June 2007:
The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP was appointed as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP was appointed as Minister for the Olympics and Minister for London.
Phil Hope MP was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary and Minister for the Third Sector.
Gillian Merron MP was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary and Minister for the East Midlands.
The Rt Hon Baroness Ashton of Upholland was appointed as Lord President of the Privy Council and Leader of the House of Lords.
The Rt Hon Harriet Harman QC MP was appointed Lord Privy Seal, Leader of the House of Commons, and Minister for Women and Equality.
Helen Goodman MP was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons.
The Rt Hon Hilary Armstrong MP, Pat McFadden MP, the Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP, the Rt Hon Baroness Amos of Brondesbury, the Rt Hon Jack Straw MP and Paddy Tipping MP all left the Department.
On 23 January 2008:
Tom Watson MP was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary.
Phil Hope MP was appointed as Minister for the East Midlands in addition to maintaining his roles as Parliamentary Secretary and Minister for the Third Sector.
Gillian Merron MP left the Department.
The Ministers who sat within the Cabinet Office during the year were:
The Rt Hon Hilary Armstrong MP
Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Until 28 June 2007
The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP
Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
From 29 June 2007
Parliamentary Secretary and Minister for The Third Sector
Until 28 June 2007
The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP
Minister for the Olympics and Minister for London
From 29 June 2007
Phil Hope MP
Parliamentary Secretary and Minister for the Third Sector
From 29 June 2007
Parliamentary Secretary and Minister for the Third Sector and Minister for the East Midlands
From 24 January 2008
Gillian Merron MP
Parliamentary Secretary and Minister for the East Midlands
From 29 June 2007 until 23 January 2008
Pat McFadden MP
Parliamentary Secretary
Until 28 June 2007
Tom Watson MP
Parliamentary Secretary
From 24 January 2008
The Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP
Minister without Portfolio – not remunerated
Until 28 June 2007
The Rt Hon Baroness Amos of Bronsbury
Lord President of the Privy Council and Leader of the House of Lords
Until 28 June 2007
The Rt Hon Baroness Ashton of Upholland
Lord President of the Privy Council and Leader of the House of Lords
From 29 June 2007
The Rt Hon Jack Straw MP
Lord Privy Seal, and Leader of the House of Commons
Until 28 June 2007
The Rt Hon Harriet Harman QC MP
Lord Privy Seal, Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Women and Equality
From 29 June 2007
Paddy Tipping MP
Parliamentary Secretary and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons – not remunerated
Until 28 June 2007
Helen Goodman MP
Parliamentary Secretary and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons – not remunerated
From 29 June 2007
Ministers' remuneration is disclosed within the audited Remuneration Report included in the section resource accounts 2007–08.
During the financial year 2007-08, the following changes took place within the departmental boundary.
Privy Council Office [External website]
On 1 April 2007, the transfer of the Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords, the Leader and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, and the Offices of the Government Whips in the House of Commons and the House of Lords from the Privy Council Office to the Cabinet Office was announced.
Better Regulation Executive [External website]
On 28 June 2007, the transfer of the Better Regulation Executive and the Local Better Regulation Office to the new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform was announced.
Prime Minister's Delivery unit
On 28 June 2007, the transfer of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit to HM Treasury was announced. The Prime Minister's Delivery Unit works in partnership with the Treasury, No.10, other parts of the Cabinet Office and stakeholder departments, to assess delivery and provide performance management for key delivery areas, and had a shared responsibility with the Treasury for the joint Public Service Agreement (PSA) target.
Directgov [External website]
On 1 April 2007, responsibility for Directgov, the Government's primary digital service for citizens, transferred from the Cabinet Office to the Central Office of Information.
Deputy Prime Minister's Office
On 28 June 2007, the Deputy Prime Minister's Office disbanded and transferred its residual responsibilities to the Cabinet Office.
Commission for the Compact Limited [External website]
In addition, changes also occurred outside of the departmental boundary including a newly operational Executive Non-Departmental Public Body, the Commission for the Compact Limited, which is not consolidated within the resource accounts.
Further details of transfers and other movements can be found within the section Cabinet Office Finances, Financial Review 2007-08 and at Notes 35 and 37 to the Resource Accounts.
The post of Cabinet Secretary was held during the year by:
Sir Gus O'Donnell KCB, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service
The terms of reference for the Board were:
Members of the Board have been appointed by Gus O'Donnell and are collectively responsible for providing corporate leadership to the organisation.
The members of the Board during the year were:
Sir Gus O'Donnell took over as Cabinet Secretary on 1 August 2005.
Prior to that, he was Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury (2002 – 2005). Before that he had been Managing Director, Macroeconomic Policy and International Finance since 1999. From 1998-9 he was Director of Macroeconomic Policy and Prospects, and from 1997-98 was the UK's Executive Director to the IMF and World Bank.
Gus studied economics at the University of Warwick and Nuffield College, Oxford. He joined the Treasury as an economist in 1979, having spent four years as an economics lecturer at the University of Glasgow. Subsequent posts in government included Press Secretary to John Major as the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1989 – 90) and Prime Minister (1990 – 94). He was Head of the Government Economics Service, the UK's largest employer of professional economists, from 1998 to 2003.
From 14 January 2008
Alex Allen joined the Civil Service in 1973, starting in Customs & Excise before transferring to the Treasury a few years later. He worked mainly on international financial issues (sterling, balance of payments) before taking a couple of years off to work in the IT industry in Australia. Soon after his return to the Treasury he was appointed private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He subsequently ran the international finance group, and then the public spending policy group before moving to 10 Downing Street in 1992 as the Prime Minister's principal private secretary. He handled the change of government in 1997 and then took up a Foreign Office appointment as High Commissioner in Australia.
Alex moved back to the Cabinet Office in 2000 as the Government's first “e-Envoy” before taking time off to live and work in Australia again. He was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Department for Constitutional Affairs in 2004, and subsequently at the Ministry of Justice following its creation in 2007. In 2008 he was appointed Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, responsible for producing coordinated intelligence assessments for Ministers across a wide range of defence, foreign policy and security issues.
Paul Britton has been Director General and Head of the Economic and Domestic Secretariat at the Cabinet Office since 2001. The Secretariat supports the Cabinet, Cabinet Committees and other forms of collective decision-taking. It also works closely with No.10 to support the Prime Minister, manages the legislative programme and advises on machinery of government. In 2006 Paul became Head of the Domestic Policy Group, which comprises: the Economic and Domestic Secretariat, the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, the Social Exclusion Task Force, and the Honours and Appointments Secretariat.
He has previously worked on devolution policy in the Cabinet Office and on a wide range of issues covered by what are now the Department for Communities and Local Government, Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Transport.
From 3 September 2007
After a short academic career, Alexis Cleveland joined the Department of Health and Social Security as an Assistant Statistician. In her early career she worked on policy development, finance, planning, and data management.
In 1989 she moved to the Information Technology Services Agency where she ran large scale IT development programmes and managed live service delivery. Frustrated by the lack of business and technology integration she took the opportunity to move to the Benefits Agency in 1993 as CIO and Director of Operations (South of England). In 2000 she became Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency and managed its restructure into five separate businesses. Alexis became the first Chief Executive of The Pension Service on its launch in April 2002.
In November 2005, Alexis agreed to become the Customer Group Director for Older People as part of the Transformational Government strategy. In this role, she is involved in looking at ways of increasing customer focus across service providers and at ways of improving integrated delivery.
In July 2007, Alexis moved to Cabinet Office as Director General for Transformational Government and Head of Cabinet Office Management.
From 3 September 2007
Prior to becoming the Prime Minister's Adviser on International Economic Affairs and Europe, Jon Cunliffe was Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury from 2005, leading the Macroeconomic Policy and International Finance Directorate. Prior to that, he led the Finance, Regulation and Industry Directorate in the Treasury, having held a number of senior positions in the department and in the Department of Transport. As well as leading on European Union business, his current role leads on the international dimensions of key issues such as trade, energy, and climate change, as well as international development.
Until 28 June 2007
From 3 September 2007 until 23 January 2008
Permanent Secretary, No.10
From 24 January 2008
Jeremy Heywood is now Permanent Secretary to No.10, after returning to the Civil Service in July 2007 to be the Prime Minister's Senior Adviser on Domestic Policy and Strategy. He spent four years as a Managing Director and co-head of the UK Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Jeremy occupied a range of Senior Civil Service roles, most recently as Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (1999-2003). Prior to that, he had a variety of senior roles at HM Treasury including, Head of Securities and Markets Policy and Head of Corporate and Management Change, where he led the department's Fundamental Expenditure Review in the mid 1990s. He also served as Principal Private Secretary to Chancellors Norman Lamont and Kenneth Clarke. This new role sees him assume overall responsibility for domestic policy and strategy including the domestic Cabinet Secretariat, strategy, social exclusion and other key areas of domestic policy.
From July 2004 until 13 June 2008
Howell James started his working life in the media as head of promotions at Capital Radio. He was head of publicity at the launch of TVam, Britain's first commercial breakfast television channel.
In 1984 he became Special Adviser to Lord Young in the Cabinet Office, and moved with him to the Department of Employment and Trade and Industry.
In 1987 he joined the Board of Management of the BBC as Director of Corporate Affairs.
He joined Cable & Wireless as Director of Corporate and Government Affairs in 1992 where he was responsible for Cable & Wireless's press, public and government relations in the UK, North America and Hong Kong.
Howell became Prime Minister John Major's Political Secretary in 1994. He was a Founding Partner of Brown Lloyd James, a corporate PR company. He was awarded the CBE in August 1997. He joined the Cabinet Office as Permanent Secretary for Government Communications in July 2004.
Roger Marsh is currently on secondment from PricewaterhouseCoopers as the Director General of Strategic Finance and Operations at the Cabinet Office.
He was sponsored in his Metallurgy degree at Leeds University by the former British Steel Corporation and joined Price Waterhouse in 1976. Following qualification as a chartered accountant he moved into corporate recovery work where he has built his professional career. He was admitted to partnership of Price Waterhouse in 1988 and is a senior partner within the firm. During the merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers and Lybrand he had the responsibility of melding the two distinct cultures of business recovery in the North and Scotland together which was done successfully. He has extensive experience of carrying out strategic and financial business reviews for both the commercial and public sectors, other advisory and executory appointments. This includes being the first person to run commercially a power station in insolvency and solving the financial problems of Bradford Cathedral through a voluntary arrangement. He is acknowledged as particularly experienced (and sensitive) in undertaking complex reviews for lenders and other stakeholders in troubled situations.
Until 15 November 2007
Gill is Head of the Civil Service Capability Group; she deals with the people, capability and leadership side of the Civil Service. She is responsible for the Capability Reviews, which is the “management tool” for ensuring the Civil Service has the right capabilities to deliver government's future requirements. As part of her role, Gill sits on a number of the Civil Service Governance Groups, including the Civil Service Steering Board. Gill is also Head of Profession for Civil Service HR, and chairs the HR Leaders Council and is a member of the Senior Leadership Committee.
Gill has been in her current role since May 2006. Previously, she spent her career in Accenture spanning 27 years, running various parts of the worldwide business. Her penultimate role was as operating head for the energy, utilities, natural resources and chemical business in 37 countries. In 2002 she was appointed Global Chief Leadership Officer – concentrating on Accenture's organisation, change, HR and leadership development. She was a member of Accenture's global Executive Committee since 1999 and appointed an Executive Officer in 2002.
The independent Non-Executive members of the Board are responsible for ensuring that the executive members are supported and constructively challenged in their role.
The non-executives are accountable to the Chair.
Ruth Carnall CBE was appointed Chief Executive of NHS London in March 2007. From September 2006 she worked as NHS London's Interim Chief Executive. Between 2004 and 2006 she was a freelance consultant working for government departments including the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit and the Home Office as well as for the health service. Prior to 2004 Ruth worked in the NHS for over 25 years. During this time, she undertook senior leadership positions at local, regional and national levels. In 1992 Ruth became Chief Executive at Hastings and Rother NHS Trust. She was Chief Executive of the West Kent Health Authority for six years before taking the position of Regional Director, South East and then Director of Health and Social Care for the South. From April 2003 to September 2004 Ruth served as Director of the Departmental Change Programme at the Department of Health. She was awarded the CBE for services to the NHS in 2004.
Independent Non-Executive Chair, Cabinet Office Audit and Risk Committee
Karen Jordan is an accountant by profession, a graduate in Public Policy-Making & Administration, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a member of the Government Internal Audit Standards Oversight Group. She is also the Head of UK Climate Change Policy for National Grid Plc.
Karen began her career in the energy sector in various finance roles, including management accountancy, internal audit, investment management, risk management and corporate governance. She then led a series of technology enabled business transformation programmes, including Y2K readiness, national field force enablement and support to the multi £bn network sales and UK gas business restructuring.
She was appointed as a non-executive director on the Cabinet Office Board and Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee in 2004
Baronness Prashar is the Chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission, a Governor of the Ditchley Foundation, non-executive Director of ITV, Trustee of Cumberland Lodge, non-executive Director of the Cabinet Office, a Governor of Ashridge College and a Patron of The Runnymede Trust.
Her previous posts include First Civil Service Commissioner, Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Chancellor of De Montfort University, Executive Chairman of the Parole Board for England and Wales, Director of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and Director of the Runnymede Trust. She sits in the House of Lords as a cross-bencher.
The Cabinet Office has an Audit and Risk Committee which supports the Accounting Officer by monitoring the adequacy of risk management, control and governance arrangements. The membership of the Committee, which meets at least three times a year, comprises five independent non-executive members: Karen Jordan who chairs the Committee, Kenneth Ludlam, David Blackwood (appointment commenced 28 September 2007), Rosemary Peters-Gallagher (appointment commenced 28 September 2007) and Stephen Wilson (appointment commenced 28 November 2007). Polly Williams left the committee on 9 August 2007 upon expiry of her contract.
The Cabinet Office maintains a Register of Interests with details of company directorships and other significant interests held by Board members. Copies of the register are available on request.
Senior management remuneration is disclosed within the audited Remuneration Report included in the section Resource Accounts 2007-08.
During the financial year, the Executive Management Group was an executive decision making sub-group of the Cabinet Office Board with responsibility for day-to-day management of the Department.
The Group supported the Board in the strategic direction and performance management of the Department, with a particular focus on Finance, HR, Infrastructure and other operations related matters.
The Group reviewed management information on a monthly basis, making decisions on Cabinet Office-wide issues. The membership had delegated responsibility to act on behalf of the board members they represent, with one representative from each Cabinet Office group attending.
The Group was chaired during the year by Ian Watmore until 28 June 2007, Roger Marsh from 29 June 2007 to 4 September 2007 and Alexis Cleveland from 5 September 2007.