Darren Tierney has been named as the new permanent secretary at the Office for National Statistics.
Tierney is currently the director general, Propriety and Constitution Group, in the Cabinet Office.
He has been appointed for a two-year fixed term and will start in the role at ONS next week.
The appointment comes after the Cabinet Office launched a civil service-wide internal recruitment campaign for the role, opening it up to permanent secretaries and directors general only.
The cabinet secretary, Sir Chris Wormald, confirmed the appointment of Tierney today, with the approval of the prime minister, Keir Starmer.
Tierney, who was previously DG, propriety and ethics, from 2021 to 2023, said he is “delighted” to be appointed to the role at “an incredibly important time for the department” and “looking forward to working with colleagues in the ONS and its many critical partners”.
The new ONS role was created after a recent review by former Department for Work and Pensions permanent secretary Sir Robert Devereux recommended the roles of national statistician and perm sec at the ONS be split up, which the government accepted.
The Cabinet Office said an external competition will be launched shortly to appoint a new national statistician.
Civil service chief operating officer and Cabinet Office permanent secretary Cat Little said Tierney will bring “inspiring leadership, experience and professionalism to the role at this important moment for the organisation as it takes forward reforms and continues to improve its provision of top-quality statistics and build a strong organisational culture”.
She also thanked Emma Rourke for covering the combined perm sec and national statistician role since 9 May, after Sir Ian Diamond stepped down, “and for the progress her and her team have made in the initial response to the Devereux report”.
Rourke will continue to be acting national statistician until a full external recruitment campaign is completed.
Sir Robert Chote, chair of the UK Statistics Authority Board, said he is “very pleased” that Tierney will be joining the ONS as perm sec. He described Tierney “a person of integrity and strong values with over 20 years of policy, strategic and corporate experience across the civil service, including the management of transformation programmes”.
Chote, who is leaving his role next month, added that he is “confident that [Tierney] will foster a healthy positive culture in the organisation and ensure that it is led and managed in a way that allows it to deliver to its full potential”.