Key civil service appointments at the centre of government have been made as further details emerge on the new administration’s machinery of government plans.
On Tuesday, the government announced a series of MoG changes, including a new Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to be led by the cabinet secretary Dame Antonia Romeo, the prime minister Andy Burnham and first secretary of state Louise Haigh.
The OPMC will house No.10, the new No.10 North and a slimmed-down Cabinet Office, while a new OneGov Delivery Agency will also be established “within the Cabinet Office family”.
Further key appointments have now been made to oversee the new organisations.
DESNZ second permanent secretary Clive Maxwell has been appointed to lead the new OneGov Delivery Agency, which will manage operational services at arm’s length, including the Government Recruitment Service, pensions, shared services, Government Car Service, and security vetting.
Maxwell has been second perm sec at DESNZ and its predecessor department BEIS since 2022 – apart from a brief break from the role from November 2025 to March 2026 when he stepped in as interim permanent secretary.
Department for Business and Trade director general Sam Lister will lead the new No.10 North, which will be based in Manchester and will be the “engine room of devolution and good growth in every postcode, across government and the wider economy”. A number of strategic functions will be transferred into No.10 North, including local economic growth and devolution strategy from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and local economic growth policy from HM Treasury.
Lister has been DG for industrial strategy at DBT since November 2024. As part of this role, he recently led a team which agreed a multi-billion pound deal to bring a Universal theme park to the UK. Before joining DBT, he was DG for strategy and operations at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. He is also a past winner of the Civil Service Awards and spoke to CSW last year about his 2014 win for our 20th anniversary coverage.
It has also been confirmed that Cat Little will remain accounting officer of the Cabinet Office and Dan York-Smith will continue to lead No.10 as principal private secretary to the PM.