Dr Malcolm McKibbin, who’s been the acting permanent secretary at the Department for Regional Development (DRD) since August 2010, has been appointed as the next head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS).

McKibbin, who succeeds Sir Bruce Robinson, will take up the post shortly. Prior to his DRD role, he served as the permanent secretary of the Department for Agriculture and Rural Development from 2007.

Melanie Dawes has been named as the new head of the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat in the Cabinet Office. Dawes, currently HMRC’s director general for business and tax, will take up her new post on 10 October. She replaces Chris Wormald, who moved to work on constitutional and devolution issues in July.

Richard McCarthy is leaving the Department for Communities and Local Government – where he was most recently the director general for neighbourhoods – to join property and infrastructure consultants Capita Symonds as executive director for central government. The move was branded “wholly unacceptable” by Labour MP John Manns, as McCarthy has most recently been working on planning reforms which will affect property and infrastructure projects. McCarthy joined DCLG in 2003 as a director general, after a career spent mainly working for housing associations.

The Department for Work and Pensions has appointed John Shield as director for strategic communications. Shield will take up his post in November. He currently works for transport company Go-Ahead, but has previously held senior communications posts in the communities and education departments.

The Treasury has announced that Michael Jack and John Whiting have been appointed as the permanent chair and tax director respectively of the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS). Both men are currently serving in these positions on an interim basis, and will remain in post until the end of this Parliament.

Written by CSW