Jeremy Heywood

Sir Jeremy Heywood KCB CVO
Sir Jeremy Heywood at the Civil Service Board meeting, January 2015 Sir Jeremy Heywood at the Civil Service Board meeting, January 2015
Cabinet Secretary
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 January 2012
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Sir Gus O'Donnell
Downing Street Permanent Secretary
In office 11 May 2010 – 1 January 2012
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Office Created
Succeeded by	Office Abolished
Downing Street Chief of Staff
In office 10 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Stephen Carter
Succeeded by	Edward Llewellyn
Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 23 January 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Tom Scholar
Succeeded by	James Bowler
In office 4 June 1999 – 10 July 2003
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Ivan Rogers
Succeeded by	Sir John Holmes
Personal details
Born	(1961-12-31) 31 December 1961
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Suzanne Elizabeth Cook
Alma mater	Bootham School Hertford College, Oxford London School of Economics Harvard Business School

Sir Jeremy John Heywood, KCB, CVO (born 31 December 1961) is a senior British civil servant who has been the Cabinet Secretary since 1 January 2012, and Head of the Home Civil Service since September 2014. He has previously served twice as the Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, as well as the Downing Street Chief of Staff and the first and only Downing Street Permanent Secretary.

Early life and education

Heywood was educated at Bootham School, an independent school with a Quaker background and ethos in York, before taking a BA in History and Economics at Hertford College, Oxford and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics. He also studied for a semester at Harvard Business School.

Career

Heywood joined HM Treasury in 1992 and became the Principal Private Secretary to Chancellor Norman Lamont at the age of 30, having to help mitigate the fallout from Black Wednesday after less than a month in the job. Heywood remained in this role throughout the 1990s under Chancellors Kenneth Clarke and Gordon Brown before being promoted to be the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1999. He stayed in this position until 2003, when he left the civil service in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry where it emerged that Heywood claimed to have never minuted meetings in the Prime Ministerial offices about David Kelly, a job he was required to do. He emerged to become the managing director of the UK Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley where he became embroiled in the Southern Cross Healthcare scandal that almost saw 30,000 elderly people being made homeless. Upon Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister in 2007, Heywood returned to government as Head of Domestic Policy and Strategy at the Cabinet Office. Political commentator Peter Oborne, in the wake of this appointment described Heywood as "a perfect manifestation of everything that has gone so very wrong with the British civil service over the past 15 years."

He would later go on to resume his old job of Principal Private Secretary, as well as being appointed the Downing Street Chief of Staff after the resignation of Stephen Carter. In 2010, after David Cameron became Prime Minister, Heywood was replaced as Chief of Staff by Edward Llewellyn and as Principal Private Secretary by James Bowler. Heywood returned to the civil service and was subsequently appointed the first Downing Street Permanent Secretary, a role created with the purpose of liaising between the Cabinet Secretary and the Chief of Staff within the Cabinet Office.

Cabinet Secretary

On 11 October 2011 it was announced that Heywood would replace Sir Gus O'Donnell as the Cabinet Secretary, the highest-ranked official in the British Civil Service, upon the latter's retirement in January 2012. It was also announced that Heywood would not concurrently hold the roles of Head of the Home Civil Service and Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office, as would usually be the case. These positions instead went to Sir Bob Kerslake and Ian Watmore respectively. On 1 January 2012, Heywood was knighted and officially made Cabinet Secretary. In July 2014 it was announced that Kerslake would step down and Heywood would take the title of Head of the HCS.

Honours

Heywood was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 2008, before being made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2012 New Year Honours. The Parliamentary Public Administration Committee cited the example of Heywood's knighthood as an automatic honour granted due to his position and not for exceptional service.

Titles and styles

• Jeremy Heywood (1961–1999)
• Jeremy Heywood CVO (1999–2008)
• Jeremy Heywood CB, CVO (2008–2012)
• Sir Jeremy Heywood KCB, CVO (2012–present)

References

Government offices
Preceded by Sir John Holmes	Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister 1999–2003	Succeeded by Ivan Rogers
Preceded by Tom Scholar	Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister 2008–2010	Succeeded by James Bowler
Preceded by Stephen Carter	Downing Street Chief of Staff 2008–2010	Succeeded by Edward Llewellyn
Preceded by Office Created	Downing Street Permanent Secretary 2010–2012	Succeeded by Office Abolished
Preceded by Sir Gus O'Donnell	Cabinet Secretary 2012–present	Incumbent
Preceded by Sir Bob Kerslake	Head of the Home Civil Service 2014–present	Incumbent

Links

• Profile from the Guardian
• Profile from the Financial Times