Most senior woman in the civil service poised to join UK media and telecoms regulator

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

Ofcom has chosen Melanie Dawes, one of the UK’s most senior civil servants, to be its new chief executive, the Guardian can reveal.

The 53-year-old, the most senior woman in the civil service, is currently permanent secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which she took over from Bob Kerslake in 2015.

The UK media and telecoms regulator’s selection panel, led by the Ofcom chairman, Terry Burns, is ready to appoint Dawes, who is understood to be keen to take up one of the biggest regulatory jobs in Britain.

However, the announcement of a successor to Sharon White is not likely to be confirmed until after the general election and that could have an impact on her appointment, which needs to be agreed by the culture secretary.

Profile Melanie Dawes profile Show Hide Melanie Dawes is currently permanent secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. She has held that position since 2015 and immediately after the UK’s vote to leave the EU she said government departments must be ready to let go of their “brightest and best” civil servants to work for Whitehall’s Brexit unit.

A keen gardener, according to her relatively new Twitter profile, Dawes is married to Benedict Brogan, a former Daily Telegraph deputy editor and chief political commentator. He is group public affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group. The couple have one child.

Dawes was educated at Malvern Girls’ College, now Malvern St James, in Worcestershire, before going on to New College Oxford and then Birkbeck College in London for postgraduate studies in economics. She joined the civil service in 1989 and after two years at the Department for Transport moved to the Treasury, ending a 15-year stint there as Europe director. Between 2006 and 2011 Dawes was at HM Revenue & Customs, where she held a range of roles including director general for business tax, which involved responsibility for all business taxes and duties as well as leadership of the HMRC’s relationships with big business. From 2009 she led the development of its overall strategy. Form 2011 to 2015 she was director general of the economic and domestic affairs secretariat at the Cabinet Office, responsible for overseeing the system of cabinet decision-making. Dawes is also the government’s diversity and inclusion champion, a role she took over in 2019 from Dame Sue Owen, a former permanent secretary at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport who has retired. Dawes was previously the government’s gender champion. Mark Sweney

Ofcom has said Jonathan Oxley, its group director of competition, will become interim chief executive as White is leaving at the end of November. Ofcom said Oxley did not apply to be permanent chief executive.

Dawes, who is married to Benedict Brogan, the former deputy editor and chief political commentator at the Daily Telegraph, boasts an impressive three-decade career in government, including 15 years at the Treasury, five years at HMRC and four years at the Cabinet Office.

“She is a very safe pair of hands and nobody’s fool,” a former colleague said. “She has a lifetime of experience with senior ministers, secretaries of state and being in and out of No 10. I’d call her formidable.”

Dawes is the government’s diversity and inclusion champion, a role she took up this year, replacing Dame Sue Owen, the former permanent secretary at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, who has retired. Dawes was previously the government’s gender champion.

The Ofcom role, which has a starting salary of £315,000, spans everything from regulating the BBC to monitoring mobile, landline and broadband pricing.

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The next phase of Ofcom’s regulatory agenda involves work on the UK’s 5G mobile phone networks, the race to roll out next-generation full-fibre and gigabit-speed broadband and content standards in the digital age.

Consumer protection, protecting people from online harm and balancing the regulation of on-demand video with tighter rules governing traditional TV broadcasters will also be priorities.

White is leaving to become chair of John Lewis. She joined Ofcom in 2015 from the Treasury, where she was a senior civil servant in charge of public finances.

Ofcom declined to comment.