Civil Service Cabinet Secretary has resigned - thoughts?

[JennyWren5]

www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/12/chris-wormald-steps-down-cabinet-secretary-starmer

Thought I’d post about this news as I’m a civil servant and keen to hear what others think about it. Guessing this will be of most interest to other civil servants!

The Cabinet Secretary resigned today and he’s expected to be replaced by Antonia Romeo.

I’m a bit worried she’ll get the role, as I worked under her - but not directly with her - when she was Permanent Secretary in another department before her current Home Office role. I’m wary of the culture she’ll set in the CS if she does become Cab Sec.

What do others think?

We absolutely do need innovation! When we’re still managing multimillion pound budgets on excel spreadsheets!
Good luck to her I hope she can turn things around without decimating Terms & Conditions because so many of us are already over worked & underpaid!

I don’t know about you all, but my department’s only answer to innovation - so far - has been Copilot and the ‘AI for all’ One Big Thing 🤣 If Antonia wants us all to be more innovative, I think she has a challenge on her hands, to put it mildly.

I wonder if we worked in the same department? 😂

I’ve jumped ship and now working in the private sector (for a lot less stress and a lot more money).

Even in the private sector there’s a view that AI will fix everything. They offered us a tool but when they found out getting the tool (that would make things more accurate and efficient) wouldn’t reduce headcount they wouldn’t do it

Interesting article in today’s Times - https://archive.ph/7TfMT - saying the report about AR’s bullying allegations from 2017 had been destroyed, along with other related files, despite there being no obligation to do so.

I guess the officials involved thought it was okay to throw away the files because there was no case to answer, but I probably would’ve held onto the files just in case they might be needed to refer back to in future.

There will be a strict retention schedule one way or the other, that would determine whether cases not upheld should be held on to and how long for, so I’d like to think they followed whatever their schedule dictates, 9 years is a long time ago I’m not at all surprised it no longer exists.

That said, I’m not at all surprised a bullying scandal hasn’t hindered her in any way. I’ve come across some hideous behaviour at SCS level and it’s tolerated entirely.

Especially bullying by senior women. I’ve also seen cases where poor judgement by SCS staff has led to an employment tribunal with very expensive payouts. It’s had zero repercussions on their careers.

I think that was a PP point.

These are top jobs that come with status. I don’t believe people wouldn’t do them without huge payouts.
The thread on here from a burnt out police call handler highlights the ridiculous nature of top job dismissals.

I really hope she’s a good Cab Sec. I hope she is professional and courteous at the very least, and that any issues with her conduct are investigated appropriately and not overshadowed by her focus on innovation and delivery.

Just to add, I found this Observer article really interesting about the potential improvements that AR could make - https://archive.ph/BJKht. I’ve never heard of most of the tech mentioned in it though (Minute, RedBox?)…

Redbox has already been decommissioned. It was to enable generative AI with an audit trail but we’re just expected to use Copilot now.