Deputy Cabinet Secretary to stand down

Helen MacNamara, the Deputy Cabinet Secretary, will be leaving the Civil Service in February. She will take up a new role in the private sector later this year.

Helen has spent the last three years at the Cabinet Office, joining as DG, Propriety & Ethics before being promoted to Deputy Cabinet Secretary in March 2020.

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson said:

“I would like to congratulate Helen on her tremendous public service over the last two decades. I am hugely grateful for her support during my time in office and I wish her all the best in her future endeavours.”

Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case said:

“Helen and I have worked together in various roles over the last decade and throughout that time she has been a close friend and colleague. She has been instrumental in transforming the Cabinet Office over the last three years and I am especially grateful for the personal support she has given to me in my role. She will be greatly missed and I hope that she may one day return to the Civil Service.”

Helen MacNamara said:

“It’s been an absolute honour to have served as a civil servant over the last two decades. I am very grateful for the support I’ve had from the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretary and I wish them and all my friends and colleagues in public service every success for the future.”

Notes to Editors:

Before joining the Cabinet Office in 2018, Helen was Director General for Housing and Planning from 2016 to 2018.

She was previously Director of the Economic and Domestic Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, working for the Cabinet Secretary from 2013 to 2016. She was responsible for brokering collective agreement in the coalition government, coordinating government preparations for the 2015 General Election and contingency preparations for the Greek Eurozone crisis.

She worked in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport from 2002 to 2013 where she held a variety of roles including working on the Olympic bid, as Principal Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Tessa Jowell and as Director for media policy.

She spent the early part of her career working in the digital and creative industries.