Emran Mian has been appointed as the new permanent secretary at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
The former fast streamer began his civil service career more than 20 years ago and held senior roles at the Department for Education and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities before moving to DSIT in 2023.
He has served as DSIT’s director general for digital technologies and telecoms for the past two years – a role he took over from Susannah Storey when she became permanent secretary at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Mian replaces Sarah Munby who has served as DSIT perm sec since its creation, but who announced her decision to leave government earlier this year.
Cabinet secretary Sir Chris Wormald said Mian would bring “significant experience” to the perm sec role.
“He is well placed to take on the opportunities of this exciting post, and lead the government’s delivery of the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government as part of the Plan for Change,” Wormald said.
The blueprint, which DSIT launched in January, sets out its vision for the future of the Government Digital Service and the rollout of artificial intelligence across the public sector.
Technology secretary Peter Kyle said Mian would be “an outstanding permanent secretary” for DSIT with “exceptional experience and vision”.
“I have had the pleasure of working with him closely since I became secretary of state and he knows this department inside out,” Kyle said.
“Under his leadership, DSIT will go from strength to strength in harnessing the power of science and technology to improve people’s lives across the UK, playing a central role in delivering our Plan for Change.”
Kyle also expressed his “thanks to and deep appreciation” to outgoing perm sec Munby.
“She has helped to navigate several of the most complex challenges facing the government of the day under five prime ministers,” he said. “Wherever she goes next will be extremely lucky to have her.”
Mian also saluted Munby, who has been his boss for the past two years.
“I applied for this role because I am hugely optimistic about how science, technology and AI can improve lives, government services and economic growth. At this moment there is no cap on how ambitious we should be for our country,” he said.
“I am grateful to Sarah Munby for her leadership of DSIT since the department was created. It is a privilege to take the work forward with colleagues across the department and wider government, working closely with scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs, businesses and civil society.”
Immediately before moving to DSIT, Mian was director general for regeneration, housing and planning at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Before joining that department he was director general for strategy and international at DfE. He has also worked at the Cabinet Office and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Mian temporarily left the civil service in the 2010s to run public policy think tank the Social Market Foundation. He returned in 2017.
Writing in Civil Service World in 2019 he expressed frustration at the lack of diversity at the top of the civil service.
Mian said other organisations had “changed faster” than the civil service and that “many of the most talented people from BAME backgrounds have decided, explicitly or not, that they would be better off somewhere else”.
Mian added: “I’ve seen them go. I’ve been sorely tempted to go permanently myself.”
However, he concluded that staying and working with others to change things was the best course of action.