58. Permanent secretaries are the long-term stewards of government departments. I am concerned, however, by the pace the revolving door of permanent secretaries is spinning. The average time in post of the current group of permanent secretaries is just two years and nine months, while the average tenure of all permanent secretaries appointed in the last 10 years is only 3.2 years.79
59. The high churn of permanent secretaries, director generals and other senior civil servants is damaging the long-term health of departments, with ministers also moving frequently, departmental corporate memory is diminishing. High turnover has direct implications for accountability, making scrutiny of decisions on key government programmes more challenging as those responsible have long-since moved on.
60. To counter this, we have called back officials to account for their decisions taken in previous roles. For instance, we recently questioned Sir Mark Sedwill, now Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, on the Emergency Services Network programme, the Disclosure and Barring Service and the Home Office's compliant environment policies, which had implications for Windrush-all of which he oversaw when permanent secretary at the Home Office.80 Ultimately, however, the civil service needs to address the high turnover of permanent secretaries and commit to a policy of consistent leadership.
61. Diversity, gender balance and ethnic minority representation in the senior civil service is still an area of concern. For example, women still under-represented at the most senior levels: only 43% of senior civil servants are women.81 This is particularly evident to us on the Public Accounts Committee as we invariably take oral evidence from senior officials.
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79 Institute for Government, Moving on: the costs of high staff turnover in the civil service, January 2019
80 Committee of Public Accounts, Oral evidence: Cyber security in the UK, HC1745, 1 April 2019, Q11-62
81 Institute for Government, Gender balance in the civil service, April 2019