Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom


Principal Private Secretary
to the Prime Minister
Royal Arms as used by His Majesty's Government
Incumbent
Ninjeri Pandit
since 6 October 2024
Prime Minister's Office
Reports toPrime Minister
NominatorPrime Minister
AppointerPrime Minister
Formation1757
Website10 Downing Street

The Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is a senior official in the United Kingdom Civil Service who acts as principal private secretary to the prime minister of the United Kingdom. The holder of this office is traditionally the head of the Prime Minister's Office in 10 Downing Street. In the Civil Service, the role is currently graded as director general.

The current principal private secretary is Nin Pandit.

History

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As the role of Prime Minister has evolved over time, so has the role of Principal Private Secretary. The Duke of Newcastle appointed a Private Secretary during his second term of office as First Lord of the Treasury (1757-62), and his 18th-century successors for the most part did likewise.[1] The Private Secretary at this time was not on the establishment of HM Treasury and he was not paid an official salary. This changed in 1806, when money was made available from public funds. In 1813 the funding available was doubled to enable a second Private Secretary to be employed, alongside the first (or 'principal') holder of the office.[2]

At this time it became customary for one of the Private Secretaries to be appointed from within the Civil Service (more often than not from the Treasury) to provide administrative support, and the other to be recruited from outside the Civil Service (including on occasion from the House of Commons) to provide political support. (In today's terms the latter were more akin to special advisers or a Parliamentary Private Secretary.)[1] A third Private Secretary was added in the 1870s.

Under Lloyd George (Prime Minister from 1916-1922), the duties of the Principal Private Secretary changed, as some responsibilities were transferred to a new Secretariat (the so-called 'Garden Suburb'), while others (particularly those relating to meetings of the Cabinet and the implementation of its decisions) were taken up by the newly established Cabinet Office and Cabinet Secretary.[1] At the same time the number of clerical staff working in the office was substantially increased, which eased the administrative burden. The Principal Private Secretary was left to focus on arranging the Prime Minister's diary, offering advice and personal support, and overseeing certain particular areas (such as honours and appointments).

Up until the 1920s the private office of the Prime Minister was usually staffed by personal and/or political appointees; a new Prime Minister would often bring in his own people (either from the civil service or from outside), and there was invariably a change of staff with a change of government.[2] Ronald Waterhouse and Patrick Gower, however, who were appointed to the office by the Conservative Bonar Law in 1922, remained in post not only under his Conservative successor Stanley Baldwin but also under the first Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. Since then the Principal Private Secretary has been considered a member of the permanent Civil Service, rather than a political or personal appointee, and as such may remain in office in spite of any change of administration.[1]

For many years, although there was a hierarchy of officials within the private office, it was not generally made public (instead the 'private secretaries' were simply listed in alphabetical order); but this changed in 1929 when Robert Vansittart was listed as 'principal' private secretary for the first time in the Imperial Calendar.

Recent history

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During Tony Blair's administration, the prime minister (as Minister for the Civil Service) modified the law under which the Civil Service operated (through an Order in Council) which gave power to the newly created role of Downing Street Chief of Staff (a politically appointed special adviser) to give instructions to civil servants and outranked the principal private secretary in the Downing Street power structure. When Gordon Brown entered 10 Downing Street, he reversed the change to the Civil Service law.

When David Cameron became prime minister, he promoted his then principal private secretary to a new post of "Downing Street Permanent Secretary"; a position which took over as the top civil servant in the Prime Minister's Office and for the first time the head of the office held the highest rank in the UK's civil service.[3] In 2012, when the post-holder, Jeremy Heywood, was appointed Cabinet Secretary; this new post ceased to exist, and the chief Civil Service official in 10 Downing Street reverted to being the Principal Private Secretary, which remains to this day.

The principal secretary runs the private office of the prime minister, which includes the Private Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister.

List of principal private secretaries to the prime minister (from 1757, incomplete)

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Principal Private Secretary Years Prime Minister
Montagu Corry 1868 Benjamin Disraeli
Algernon West 1868–1872 William Gladstone
Montagu Corry 1874–1880 Benjamin Disraeli
Arthur Godley 1880–1882 William Gladstone
Edward Walter Hamilton CB 1882–1885
The Marquess of Granby 1885–1886 Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
post vacant 1886 William Gladstone
The Marquess of Granby 1886–1888 Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
Capt the Hon Schomberg Kerr McDonnell CB 1888–1892
Sir Algernon West KCB 1892–1894 William Gladstone
George Herbert Murray CB[4][5][6] 1894–1895 Archibald Primrose
Capt the Hon Sir Schomberg Kerr McDonnell KCB CVO 1895–1902 Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
John Satterfield Sandars CVO 1902–1905 Arthur Balfour
Arthur Ponsonby[7] 1905–1908 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Vaughan Nash CB CVO 1908–1911 H. H. Asquith
Maurice Bonham-Carter 1911–1916
Sir John T Davies KCB CVO 1916–1922 David Lloyd George
Lt Col Sir Edward Grigg KCVO CMG DSO MC [dubious – discuss] 1921–1922
Sir Patrick Gower KBE CB CVO
Lt Col Sir Ronald Waterhouse KCB CMG CVO 		1922–1923 Bonar Law
1923–1924 Stanley Baldwin
1924 Ramsay MacDonald
1924–1928 Stanley Baldwin
Sir Robert Vansittart KCB CMG MVO[7] 1928–1929
1929–1930 Ramsay MacDonald
Sir Patrick Duff KCB CVO 1930–1933
Alan Barlow CB CBE 1933–1934
Harold Vincent CB CVO 1934–1935
1935–1936 Stanley Baldwin
Osmund Cleverly CB CVO 1935–1937
1937–1939 Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Rucker CB CBE 1939–1940
Eric Seal CB 1940–1941 Winston Churchill
John Martin CB CVO 1941–1945
Leslie Rowan CB CVO 1945
1945–1947 Clement Attlee
Laurence Helsby CB 1947–1950
Denis Rickett CB CMG 1950–1951
David Pitblado 1951
Jock Colville CB CVO (PPS: defence and external affairs)

David Pitblado CB CVO (PPS: home and internal affairs)

1951–1955 Winston Churchill
David Pitblado CB CVO 1955–1956 Anthony Eden
Frederick Bishop CVO 1956–1957
1957–1959 Harold Macmillan
Timothy Bligh 1959–1963
1963–1964 Alec Douglas-Home
Derek Mitchell CVO 1964–1966 Harold Wilson
Lt Col Arthur Norman (Michael) Halls MBE TD[8][9][10] 1966–1970
Alexander Isserlis 1970
1970 Edward Heath
Robert Armstrong CB CVO 1970–1974
1974–1975 Harold Wilson
Kenneth Stowe CB CVO[11] 1975–1976
1976–1979 James Callaghan
1979 Margaret Thatcher
Clive Whitmore 1979–1982
Robin Butler 1982–1985
Nigel Wicks CBE 1985–1988
Andrew Turnbull CB CVO 1988–1990
1990–1992 John Major
Alex Allan 1992–1997
1997 Tony Blair
Sir John Holmes KBE CMG CVO 1997–1999
Jeremy Heywood CB CVO 1999–2003
Ivan Rogers 2003–2006
Oliver Robbins 2006–2007
2007 Gordon Brown
Tom Scholar 2007–2008
Jeremy Heywood CB CVO 2008–2010
James Bowler CB 2010–2011 David Cameron
Chris Martin CB CVO 2011–2015
Simon Case CVO 2016
2016–2017 Theresa May
Peter Hill CB 2017–2019
2019 Boris Johnson
Martin Reynolds CMG[12] 2019–2022
Peter Wilson CMG[13] 2022
Nick Catsaras 2022 Liz Truss
Elizabeth Perelman 2022–2024 Rishi Sunak
2024 Keir Starmer
Ninjeri Pandit 2024–

See also

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Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Jones, G. W. (1976). "The Prime Ministers' Secretaries: Politicians or Administrators?". In Griffith, J. A. G. (ed.). From Policy to Administration: Essays in honour of William A. Robson. London: Routledge. pp. 15–16.
  2. ^ a b Blick, Andrew; Jones, George. "The Institution of Prime Minister". GOV.UK. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  3. ^ "Cabinet Office Structure Charts, May 2010" (PDF). Cabinet Office, HM Government. May 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
  4. ^ "THE CABINET CRISIS.|1894-03-06|The South Wales Daily Post – Welsh Newspapers". newspapers.library.wales. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  5. ^ "TO-DAY'S INCIDENTS.___I|1894-03-06|South Wales Echo – Welsh Newspapers". newspapers.library.wales. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  6. ^ "Premier and ex-Premier.|1894-03-06|Evening Express – Welsh Newspapers". newspapers.library.wales. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  7. ^ a b British Political Facts 1900–1994, Butler & Butler, 1994, p. 284
  8. ^ "The secret 'that could have toppled Wilson'". www.telegraph.co.uk. 14 March 2005. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  9. ^ "WHEN I WAS RUDE TO CIVIL SERVANTS » 16 Dec 1995 » The Spectator Archive". The Spectator Archive. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  10. ^ Colman, Jonathan (2018-07-30). Dissociation, January–July 1966. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-1-5261-3720-3.
  11. ^ Partridge, Michael (2019). "Stowe, Sir Kenneth Ronald (Ken) (1927–2015), civil servant". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.110742. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  12. ^ "Martin Reynolds Government Profile". Gov.uk. UK Government. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  13. ^ "Peter Wilson appointed Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2022-03-08.
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