Cabinet Secretary

A Cabinet Secretary is usually a senior official (typically a civil servant) who provides services and advice to a Cabinet of Ministers as part of the Cabinet Office. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powers, including general responsibility for the entire civil service.

The title of Cabinet Secretary may also be used as an alternative term for a politically appointed cabinet minister, derived from Secretary of State - the formal title for ministers. This naming convention is used in Japan, Kenya, Scotland and the United States.

Australia

In Australia, the equivalent position is the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, although both the Department and its secretary have wider responsibilities than in most other governments derived from the Westminster System. Furthermore, there is also a ministerial position entitled Cabinet Secretary with a portfolio for the preparation and management of cabinet business, although the duties are somewhat different from the British position.

Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia)

The Australian Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is the public service head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the most senior public servant in the administration of Government in Australia.

List of Secretaries of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Below is the list of Secretaries, since the first appointment was made on 1 January 1912.

Historical arrangements

Within days of John Gorton becoming Prime Minister, the functions of the Prime Minister's Department was split and a Department of the Cabinet Office was established. On taking office as Prime Minister in 1971, William McMahon reversed Gorton's changes and restored earlier changes via the creation of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. A lesser role of Secretary to the Department of the Vice-President of the Executive Council was established for a short time; abolished in the early days of the Whitlam government. Upon election to office in 1996, John Howard established a separate Cabinet Office within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The Cabinet Office was a small unit, staffed from within and outside the public service, which provided the Prime Minister with advice on issues before Cabinet as well as strategic policy directions.

Cabinet Secretary (United Kingdom)

The Cabinet Secretary is the most senior civil servant in the United Kingdom. He or She acts as the senior policy adviser to the Prime Minister and Cabinet and as the Secretary to the Cabinet, responsible to all Ministers for the running of Cabinet Government. The role is currently occupied by Jeremy Heywood, appointed in January 2012; in succession to Gus O'Donnell, 2005–2012.

The position of Cabinet Secretary was created in 1916 for Maurice Hankey, when the existing secretariat of the Committee of Imperial Defence, headed by Hankey, became secretariat to a newly organised War Cabinet.

Since 1981 and until the end of 2011, the position of Cabinet Secretary has been combined with the roles of Head of the Home Civil Service and Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office. The first means that the Cabinet Secretary is responsible for all the civil servants of the various departments within government (except the Foreign Office), chairing the Permanent Secretaries Management Group (PSMG) which is the principal governing body of the civil service. The second means that the Cabinet Secretary is responsible for leading the government department that provides administrative support to the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The post is appointed by the Prime Minister with the advice of the out-going Cabinet Secretary and the First Civil Service Commissioner.