Simon Case could step down in January, according to reports.
The cabinet secretary is set to stay on to oversee the transition between the Conservatives and the incoming government, with polls pointing to a new Labour administration.
Case is planning to quit in the early new year, “after fulfilling his desire to ensure continuity during a time of constitutional change, and having reflected on his personal circumstances”, according to The Times.
The latest contender to replace Case is Olly Robbins, a former permanent secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union under Theresa May, according to the newspaper.
Robbins was perm sec at DexEU from 2016 to 2017, then chief Brexit adviser and the PM’s adviser for Europe from 2017 to 2018.
He left the civil service in 2019 after Boris Johnson became prime minister, joining Goldman Sachs. He is currently works at Hakluyt, a consultancy set up by a group of former MI6 officials.
Robbins is also reportedly being considered for the Downing Street permanent secretary role, which has been vacant for two years since the departure of Samantha Jones. This was the role Case held before becoming cab sec in September 2020. Before Case, the role had been left absent for eight years.
Robbins joins an assortment of former and current perm secs who have been rumoured to replace Case, including:
- Dame Antonia Romeo, perm sec at the Ministry of Justice
- Tamara Finkelstein, perm sec at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- Jeremy Pocklington, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero perm sec
- Sir Peter Schofield, Department for Work and Pensions perm sec
- Sarah Healey, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities perm sec
- Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom chief executive
- Dame Sharon White, former Treasury second perm sec
Romeo has been the top civil servant at the MoJ since 2021 and was previously perm sec at the Department for International Trade. Finkelstein has led Defra since 2019, her first perm sec role.
Pocklington only became DESNZ perm sec last year, following machinery of government changes made by Rishi Sunak, but has previously led the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and its successor DLUHC.
Healey, like Pocklington, changed jobs last year as a result of the machinery of government changes, becoming perm sec at DLUHC, having previously led the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Schofield has led the DWP since 2018, while Dawes has been Ofcom chief since 2021 and is a former perm sec at the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Dame Sharon White is currently chair of the John Lewis Partnership, but is stepping down next March.