Tamara Finkelstein is leaving the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs after six years leading the department.
Finkelstein, who is also head of the government policy profession, will step down as permanent secretary in the summer, Defra confirmed today.
The announcement comes just months after Finkelstein was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath – one of the highest possible honours – in the 2025 New Year Honours. A statement by the Cabinet Office at the time said the perm sec had “dedicated her entire 32 year career to public service”.
She first took on the role on an interim basis in April 2019, when her predecessor, Clare Moriarty, moved to head up the now-defunct Department for Exiting the European Union. Two months later, it was announced that she would stay on permanently.
Before becoming perm sec, Finkelstein spent a year as the department’s director general for EU exit. In 2019, Defra had one of Whitehall’s biggest Brexit-related workloads, with the UK’s exit from the EU affecting 80% of its work, and the job advert for the department’s most senior civil servant said it was seeking a candidate who would be able to “respond to the outcome of EU exit negotiations, ensuring that the department and its people are equipped to operate differently as required”.
Finkelstein began her more than three-decade civil service career as a graduate, via a programme that funded master’s conversion courses for would-be economists in exchange for a couple of years at the Treasury after graduation.
In an interview with CSW in 2019, the perm sec said of her entry into government: “I have to admit, I didn’t really know properly what the civil service was. I slightly resented that after doing [the course] I was going to have to stay for at least two years.”
However, she spent 22 years at the Treasury, interrupted by secondments including setting up the Sure Start centres. Her posts there included private secretary and speechwriter to Gordon Brown and director of public services.
She then spent five years at the Department of Health and Social Care, first as chief operating officer and then director general for community care, and a year at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, where she moved in 2017 in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.
While at Defra, Finkelstein has also been the department’s race sponsor and senior sponsor of the Civil Service Jewish Network.
In a statement on X, environment secretary Steve Reed said he wanted to offer “my personal thanks for the way she has personally supported me, and the whole ministerial team, since our arrival last summer”.
“She has done a fantastic job of leading the department over the last six years,” he said.
“Her expertise, knowledge, and experience have been invaluable in driving forward real progress across our priority areas. I wish Tamara all the very best for the future,” he added.