New cabinet secretary starts job

Thursday, 1 September 2005 12:00 AM

Sir Gus O'Donnell, the new cabinet secretary, is beginning his new job by taking the civil service back to the shop floor.

The new head of the civil service, who replaces Sir Andrew Turnbull, plans to visit civil servants across London to see how they are working and serving the community and to dispel the myth that they operate solely out of Whitehall.

He said: "It's easy to presume that all civil servants simply operate out of Whitehall but on my first day, I want to get out of the office to see how they are delivering what people need at a community and customer level."

Before taking over as cabinet secretary, Sir Gus was permanent secretary at the Treasury.

In the past he has been John Major's press secretary, as well as working as the British representative on the IMF and the World Bank during his time at the UK embassy in Washington.

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