A former Private Secretary to Prince William, Simon Case (pictured) has been named to head the United Kingdom Public Service following Sir Mark Sedwill’s resignation.
The 41-year-old is considered to be a close ally of Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
While Mr Case is the youngest Cabinet Secretary for decades, he has significant Government and Downing Street experience.
Mr Case worked under former Prime Minister, David Cameron from 2012 to 2014 and stayed on as Principal Private Secretary when Theresa May took over.
He then worked on Northern Ireland border issues connected to the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union (Brexit), before becoming Private Secretary to Prince William in March 2018.
In a sign of the regard Mr Johnson and his team hold for Mr Case, he was brought back to Downing Street in May on what was officially a secondment, with the task of improving the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The choice of a relative Public Service outsider close to Mr Johnson will be linked by observers to a desire in Downing Street to radically reshape the bureaucracy.
Unlike Sir Mark, Mr Case will not also hold the role of National Security Adviser.
Mr Johnson has already announced this will go to David Frost, currently the Government’s chief Brexit negotiator.
Though a former diplomat, Mr Frost has little direct experience of security matters. His appointment brought rare criticism from Ms May, with the former Prime Minister saying the Government had promoted someone with “with no proven expertise”.
London, 2 September 2020
