Ruth Hannant (left) and Polly Payne (right)
Photo: UK Government
Top DCMS civil servant role to be shared
Former DCMS Directors General jointly take on top civil service role in the department on an interim basis.
Two senior civil servants in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have stepped into the vacant role of Permanent Secretary on an interim basis, it has been confirmed.
Polly Payne and Ruth Hannant, who have job shared a number of government roles for more than a decade, were previously Directors General for Culture, Sport and Civil Society at the department, having been appointed to that role in March 2021.
They have been stepped up on an interim basis to the top job after the previous incumbant, Sarah Healey, was moved to become Permanent Secretary of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities earlier this month.
The departure of Healey – who had been in post since 2019 – is one of a raft of changes at the department trigged by Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks's government reshuffle earlier this month.
Lucy Frazer was made Culture Secretary, the eleventh Secretary of State to oversee cultural policymaking in the last 11 years, with previous post holder Michelle Donelan moving to the newly-formed Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
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