Helen MacNamara

MacNamara read History at Clare College, Cambridge.[2] Before joining the Civil Service, she was a new media entrepreneur.[3] In 2002, she joined the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, working as principal private secretary to Tessa Jowell and on London's bid and preparations for the 2012 Olympic Games. In 2010, she was appointed director for media policy, and was responsible for setting up the Leveson Inquiry.[4]

From 2014 to 2016, MacNamara was Director of the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat at the Cabinet Office,[3] where she coordinated government preparations for the 2015 United Kingdom general election. In 2014, speaking at an event on "how women leaders succeed" at the Institute for Government, she said that EDS "run Cabinet and Cabinet Committees and we do lots of brokering to try to smooth the process for collective agreement."[3] She spoke with enthusiasm about "the disruptive power of change" and how "crisis creates the opportunity to be disruptive".[2] In late 2015, she was involved in a tribunal case in which she argued that the frequency of cabinet committee meetings should not be made public. The Information and Rights Tribunal described her as "evasive and disingenuous", and her evidence as "fundamentally flawed and of no value whatever".[4]

From July 2016 to April 2018, MacNamara was Director General of Housing in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. She was responsible for government policy on housing including £25 billion of investment, the Homes and Communities Agency, the Planning Inspectorate and the planning system.[1]

In May 2018, she succeeded Sue Gray as Director General of the Propriety and Ethics Team in the Cabinet Office.[5] Speaking about the appointment, Sir Jeremy Heywood, the then Cabinet Secretary said: "She is a highly experienced civil servant who has worked in many senior roles across government. Her appointment will bring a wealth of knowledge and understanding of how government works, that will assist her in this crucial role."[5] A government minister is reported to have described her as "a perfect official, fair-minded, doesn't play games, will always try to get at the truth, capable of bringing sense out of five-sided talks".[2]

In September 2019 some MPs called for MacNamara to investigate Dominic Cummings, an aide of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, after Cummings dismissed a Treasury aide, Sonia Khan.[6] In February 2020 former special advisers called on MacNamara to defend the workplace rights of ministerial aides, amid further complaints about Cummings' behaviour.[7] In February 2020, after claims that Home Secretary Priti Patel had bullied aides, The Times claimed that MacNamara "blocked" Patel's request for a formal leak inquiry into the claims, though the Cabinet Office denied that a formal request had been made.[8][9] MacNamara's report into the bullying allegations against Patel were delayed by the Prime Minister's hospitalisation in April.[10] The Labour Party called for the report to be made public,[11] and repeated the calls in mid-July amid rumours that MacNamara was resisting pressure from Downing Street to exonerate Patel.[12]

In spring 2020, MacNamara was promoted to become the Deputy Cabinet Secretary, a permanent secretary-level role in which she leads the Cabinet Secretariat group in the Cabinet Office and advises the Prime Minister on the operation of the cabinet government and collective agreement, machinery of government, propriety and ethics and the Special Adviser and Ministerial Codes. She also manages the government's relationship with independent offices established in statute, including the Civil Service Commission.[1]

In July 2020, it was erroneously reported that MacNamara would leave her job the next month, to become permanent secretary of an unspecified government department.[13][14][5]

In January 2021 it was announced that she would leave her job the next month in preparation for a move to the private sector later in the year.[15]

MacNamara was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2021 Birthday Honours.[16]

In April 2022 she was issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice in the Partygate controversy.[17]

MacNamara featured in Management Today's list of 35 women leaders under 35 and in the 50 women to watch working in the cultural sector. She has been a trustee of the Target Ovarian Cancer charity (from 2008-2103) and a Governor of Goldsmiths College. She is married to Alex Towers, previously Director of the now-defunct BBC Trust.[1] She has 4 children.[18]

In the 2023 Channel 4 docudrama Partygate, MacNamara was played by Charlotte Ritchie.[19]