February 17, 2020

Dame Melanie has been Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government since 2015. She will take up her new position in early March. She has held senior roles across the Civil Service, working in partnership across the public and private sectors. She started her career as an economist and spent 15 years at the Treasury, including as Europe Director. She was Director General of the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat at the Cabinet Office between 2011 and 2015, and prior to that she served on the Board of HMRC as Head of Business Tax.

In addition to her current Permanent Secretary role, Dame Melanie chairs the Civil Service People Board, leading workforce strategies across all government departments. She is also Civil Service champion for diversity and inclusion.

The programme to establish online harms as part of Ofcom’s remit is likely to take time to put in place (see item below). Given the extension of Ofcom’s role, the Secretary of State has also today said that the Government will consider carefully the full impacts of this potential change, both for Ofcom and to inform broader work on the regulatory landscape.

In view of the fact that the new role would mean change for Ofcom over the next few years, the Secretary of State has indicated that the Government would like a Chair to be in place who is able to oversee the successful implementation of any changes in full.

Lord Burns has therefore agreed to step down to enable a new Chair to be in place by the end of this year. He has agreed to stay on until the new Chair is in place to ensure a smooth transition. To read Ofcom’s news release, click here.