MOVERS & SHAKERS
Want to hone your dinner party gossip about who’s in, who’s out and who’s shakin’ it all about? Look no further than quarterly guide to all the key moves in government If you would like to let us know about a move in your team please email csw.editor@tota
CHISHOLM SET FOR NEW PATH
Cabinet Office permanent secretary and civil service chief operating officer Sir Alex Chisholm (below) has announced plans to leave government in the spring.
By the time he steps down, Chisholm will have served in his current role for four years. Prior to this he was perm sec at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Chisholm was briefly perm sec of the Department for Energy and Climate Change before the creation of BEIS in 2016. He ran the Competition and Markets Authority from 2013 to 2016.
The Cabinet Office recruitment campaign to find Chisholm’s successor offered a salary of up to £185,000.
Chisholm told CSW that he plans to walk the Camino de Santiago in
Spain after he leaves the Cabinet Office in April.
CSW’s
WELL-QUALIFIED
Sir Ian Bauckham has become interim chief regulator at qualifications watchdog Ofqual, following the departure of Dr Jo Saxton.
Bauckham (above) has been chair of Ofqual for the past three years but is standing down from that role while he serves as interim chief regulator. He will also stand down as chief executive of the Tenax Schools Academy Trust.
Education secretary
Gillian Keegan said Bauckham’s experience would be “invaluable” to Ofqual.
Saxton is due to take up a new role as chief executive of higher-education admissions service UCAS.
THE BOURGEOIS, SEE?
The Government Property Agency has appointed Mark Bourgeois as interim chief executive following the departure of Stephen Boyd at the end of November.
Bourgeois (above, right) has more than 30 years of experience in commercial realestate leadership, including serving as managing director of the UK and Ireland division of developer and investor Hammerson and as executive director at Capital & Regional.
The agency said Bourgeois’ focus will be on “maintaining momentum” on the GPA’s work to deliver a smaller, better-connected, better-quality and greener government property estate. In October the GPA hired Lisa Commane (below) as its chief operating officer. She joined from water-services regulation authority Ofwat, where she was also COO.
FOR THE RECORD
National Archives chief executive Jeff James (below) is set to leave next summer after serving a second five-year term at its helm.
The organisation, which is headquartered at Kew in south-west London, has a staff of more than 550 and an annual budget of £50m.
In a recruitment campaign that closed in November
TNA offered a salary of up to £145,000 a year to find an “inspirational leader with a breadth of expertise” to replace James and take the archives through a “transformational decade”.
ETHICAL PICK
MPs have backed former British Army Lt Gen Doug Chalmers to become the next chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
He has now succeeded Lord Jonathan Evans at the helm of the ethics watchdog, which was created in 1994 as
part of the Major government’s response to persistent sleaze allegations in Westminster.
Former MI5 chief Evans’ five-year term as chair of CSPL ended in October.
Chalmers (above), who saw active service in Afghanistan and Iraq, finished his 37-year military career with a three-year stint as deputy chief of defence staff, responsible for military strategy and operations. He has served as master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge since October 2021 and will continue in that role as CSPL chair.
PROBATION PROSPECT
Parole Board chief executive Martin Jones (below) has been named as the government’s preferred candidate to become the next HM chief inspector of probation for England and Wales.
Members of parliament’s Justice Select Committee have also endorsed his appointment, meaning Jones is set to succeed Justin Russell in the role.
Russell stepped down as HMCIP at the end of September. Sue McAllister has been serving as chief inspector on an interim basis since the beginning of October.
Jones has a three-decade career in the justice system and has run the Parole Board since 2015.
INFRASTRUCTURALLY SOUND
The National Infrastructure Commission has appointed former Transport for London managing director for planning Michèle Dix (below) as a commissioner. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said Dix’s decades of experience in the transport sector would be a boost for the commission, which is chaired by Sir John Armitt and overseen by the Treasury.
“We need high quality infrastructure to deliver growth and boost productivity,” Hunt said. “Michèle will help ensure that the National Infrastructure Commission has the right skills and talent to help deliver the infrastructure we need.”
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
Long-serving Debt Management Office chief executive Sir Robert Stheeman has announced he will step down from the role in June.
Stheeman became DMO chief exec in 2003, after spending 16 years at Deutsche Bank as director of its debt capital markets group.
In his 20 years heading DMO the HM Treasury executive agency has raised more than £3tn of borrowing for the government. Eleanor Lyons (above) has been appointed to take up the role of independent anti-slavery commissioner, a position that was established by the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Then-home secretary Suella Braverman confirmed her selection in October. Lyons was previously deputy children’s commissioner for England.
Rob Fletcher has been appointed as permanent chief executive of Magnox Ltd, the government-owned company tasked with decommissioning UK nuclear sites. Fletcher had served as interim chief exec of Magnox since May. Magnox has now rebranded as Nuclear Restoration Services. Charlie Taylor (below) has been reappointed for a second three-year term as chief inspector of prisons. His current term will run until 31 October 2026.