Latest civil service & public affairs moves – May 7

 

UK government

• Prime Minister's Office – Dr Derrick Anderson CBE appointed as His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant for the ceremonial county of the West Midlands from 5 August, succeeding Sir John Crabtree OBE who will be retiring. 
• Department for Business and Trade: Insolvency Service – Lorcan O'Connor appointed as non-executive director on the Board. Post Office Limited – Nigel Railton appointed as interim chair, subject to completion of pre-appointment checks.  SME Digital Adoption Taskforce – Phil Smith appointed as chair; Tera Allas, Melissa Di Donato, Jon Cowan, Shevaun Haviland, Anthony Impey, Emma Jones, Simon Kenyon, Ian O’Donnell and Alex von Schirmeister appointed as Members. 
• Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Natural History Museum – Yadvinder Malhi reappointed as trustee for four years. National Lottery Community Fund – Emma Boggis and Danielle Palmour reappointed as board members for three years. 
• Ministry of Defence – West Midlands Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committee – Charlie Henning and Lesley Wilde appointed as members for three years until 31 January 2027. 
• Department for Energy Security and Net Zero – Vikas Shah re-appointed as non-executive board member and chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee for three years until April 2027. National Energy System Operator – Dr Paul Golby CBE appointed as chair-designate from 6 May, ahead of NESO’s creation this summer. 
• Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office – Juliana Correa appointed as His Majesty’s ambassador to the Republic of Guatemala and non-resident ambassador to the Republic of Honduras from October, succeeding Nick Whittingham. Katherine Smitton appointed as His Majesty’s ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan from October, succeeding Timothy Marschall Jones who will be transferring to another diplomatic service appointment. British International Investment – Daniel Hanna appointed as non-executive director for three years from 1 May until 30 April 2027. 
• Department of Health and Social Care: Chief Nursing Officer – Dame Ruth May to retire later this year. 
• Ministry of Justice: Tribunal Procedure Committee – Gabriella Bettiga re-appointed as a member for three years from 2 May until 1 May 2027. Law Commission of England and Wales – Professor Penney Lewis re-appointed as commissioner for four years from 1 January 2025 until 31 December 2029. 
• HM Treasury: Financial Policy Committee – Liz Oakes appointed as external member for three years from 3 June; Carolyn Wilkins reappointed as external member from 21 June. 

Houses of Parliament

House of Commons 

• Blackpool South by-election result: Chris Webb won the seat for Labour with a majority of 7,607 and a swing of 26 per cent from Conservative to Labour on 2 May. The turnout was 32.5%. 
• Dan Poulter, MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, defected from Conservative to Labour on 27 April. 
• Education Committee – Jess Phillips and Gen Kitchen added; Apsana Begum and Kim Johnson discharged. 
• European Scrutiny Committee – Paul Bristow added; Adam Holloway discharged. 
• Justice Committee – Bambos Charalambous and Yasmin Qureshi added; Maria Eagle and Karl Turner discharged. 

House of Lords 

• Lord Stunell (Lib Dem, life peer) died on 29 April. 

Devolved administrations

Scottish Government 

• Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator – Maureen Mallon to stand down as chief executive at the end of June; Katriona Carmichael appointed as chief executive from on 1 July. 

Welsh Government 

• Commission for Tertiary Education and Research –  Aaqil Ahmed and Jeffrey Greenidge appointed as board members for three years from 1 September.  
• Design Commission for Wales Ltd – Ewan Jones appointed as chair. 

Northern Ireland Assembly 

• Andrew McMurray (Alliance Party) returned as MLA for South Down on 29 April. 

Mayor of London and London Assembly 

• Sadiq Khan was re-elected for a third term as London mayor. Full results of the London Assembly elections will be available in next week's Moves. 

Local authorities

Interested in an updated contact list of local government leaders – get in contact with your Dods account manager or customer services for more details. 

• Belfast City Council – Micky Murray (Alliance Party) appointed as Lord Mayor in June, replacing Ryan Murphy (Sinn Féin). 
• Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council – Damien McCann to stand down as chief executive in June. 
• East Devon District Council – Tracy Hendren appointed as chief executive from 1 June, subject to approval by Full Council on 8 May. 

Combined authorities

Full results for the elections in eight combined authorities will be available in the next newsletter. 

Police and crime commissioners

Vote counts were currently taking place for 33 PPCs in England and four in Wales when this column was compiled. The following results have been declared so far – full results will be available in next week's Moves

• Avon and Somerset – Clare Moody (Labour) elected as police and crime commissioner. 
• Cumbria – David Allen (Labour) elected as police, fire and crime commissioner. 
• Lincolnshire – Marc Jones (Conservative) re-elected as police and crime commissioner. 

Industry

Interest groups 

• Bowel Research UK – Lindsay Easton appointed as chief executive from 1 May. 
• CRASH – Trisha Pickersgill appointed as chief executive from 1 May. 
• STiR Education – Girish Menon to stand down as chief executive in June; Jenny Willmott and John McIntosh appointed as interim co-chief executives. 

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