Former Treasury second permanent secretary Dame Sharon White has said she does not expect to return to the civil service – despite featuring prominently in speculation about who will replace Simon Case as cabinet secretary.
Multiple reports have suggested Case will step down as the nation's top civil servant in the new year, prompting the obvious question of who will succeed him. Unlike other senior government roles, cabinet secretaries are not usually openly recruited for. Historically, potential candidates instead undergo a more opaque appointment process, over which the prime minister has the final say.
White left the Treasury in 2015 to become chief executive of communications regulator Ofcom. She was subsequently appointed as chair of retailer the John Lewis Partnership – a role she is due to leave later this month.
White was a panel member on BBC current affairs show Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg at the weekend, when stand-in host Victoria Derbyshire asked her about the speculation surrounding the Starmer government's recruitment of a new cabinet secretary.
She initially gave a non-committal answer, stating: "I've got another four weeks at the partnership and I'm not going to rush into what I do next."
But when Derbyshire persisted, asking if White would at least "fancy" returning to the civil service as the nation's first female cabinet secretary, she gave a firmer response.
"I think its very unlikely that I'm going to go back," she said.
Other current and former senior officials named as potential successors to Case include Ministry of Justice perm sec Dame Antonia Romeo; Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs perm sec Dame Tamara Finkelstein; Department for Energy Security and Net Zero perm sec Jeremy Pocklington; Department for Work and Pensions perm sec Sir Peter Schofield; and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government perm sec Sarah Healey.
Former MHCLG perm sec – and White's successor at Ofcom – Dame Melanie Dawes has also been named as a cab-sec contender.
One potential disincentive for White and Dawes to succeed Case would be the relatively ungenerous remuneration package offered to the nation's top civil servant in comparison with their current roles.
According to the Cabinet Office's most recently published annual report and accounts, Case's base salary for 2022-23 was bracketed at £200,000-£205,000, with benefits in kind and pension contributions adding on a further £88,000.
When White took the helm of Ofcom just over nine years ago, her salary was £275,000 a year. Her starting "basic salary" at John Lewis was £990,000.
According to Ofcom's 2023-24 annual report and accounts, published yesterday, Dawes' salary for the year was £342,058. Her total package was bumped up to £435,164 with the inclusion of pension entitlement allowance, an annual performance bonus, benefits in kind, and a flexible benefits allowance.