Gill Aitken

Gillian Elizabeth Aitken, CB (née Parker; born 1960) is a British lawyer, civil servant and university administrator. Since 2018, she has been Registrar of the University of Oxford.

Career

Education and early career

Born in 1960, Aitken graduated from St Hugh's College, Oxford, in 1982.[1] She worked for McKenna Long & Aldridge from 1986 to 1993[2] and was admitted a solicitor in December 1988.[3] She left the private sector to join the Government Legal Service in 1993.[2]

Senior civil servant

Aitken worked in the Department of Health (where she worked on NHS Foundation Trusts) until 2004,[2] when she was appointed Director of Legal Services at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).[1] In March 2007, she was appointed Solicitor and Director-General for Legal Services in DEFRA, succeeding Donald Macrae.[4] In 2009 she became the department's Director-General for Law and Corporate Services.[1] In March 2010, she moved to the Department for Work and Pensions to be Director-General, Legal,[5] a role which was reorganised in October 2011 as Director-General, Professional Services.[6] In February 2014, she was appointed General Counsel and Solicitor to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC),[7] and remained in the role until July 2018.[8]

At HMRC, Aitken headed a team of 180 lawyers and 350 employees which was noted in The Lawyer for having an 80% success rate at trial and adding £20bn to the government's tax income in 2014;[2] it reported that she was responsible for "implementing accurate risk-predictions for ministers, which allow in-house lawyers to use precedent as a type of barometer to determine the percentage outcome of specific claims."[9]

University administrator

Aitken left HMRC when she was appointed Registrar of the University of Oxford,[10] and in the capacity is "head of the central administrative services", with responsibility for "the management and professional development of their staff and for the development of other administrative support".[11] She was also elected to a fellowship at St Hugh's College, Oxford.[12]

Honours and awards

In the 2019 New Year Honours, Aitken was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB), "for services to taxpayers and to social mobility".[13]

References

1. "Aitken, Gill", Who's Who (online ed., Oxford University Press, December 2018). Retrieved 22 August 2019.
2. Natasha Bernal, "In-house interview: HMRC general counsel Gill Aitken", The Lawyer, 24 November 2014.
3. "Gillian Elizabeth Aitken", The Law Society of England and Wales. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
4. Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs: Resource Accounts 2006–2007 (2007), p. 23.
5. Department for Work and Pensions Resource Accounts 2009–10 (House of Commons Papers, 2010, HC 296), p. 29.
6. Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report 2011–12 (2012), p. 47
7. Natasha Bernal, "She used to sue the Government. Now she leads the legal team at HMRC. Gill Aitken on adding value in-house", The Lawyer, 22 October 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
8. Natasha Bernal, "HMRC's top lawyer Gill Aitken exits after four years", The Lawyer, 5 June 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
9. "Gill Aitken, HMRC's expert number cruncher", The Lawyer, 27 November 2014.
10. Jim Dunton, "HMRC loses top lawyer to Oxford University", Civil Service World, 4 June 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
11. "Registrar and other Officials". Statutes and Regulations of the University of Oxford. University of Oxford. 28 September 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
12. "Gill Aitken CB", St Hugh's College, Oxford. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
13. "Gillian Aitken", The London Gazette, notice 3175873 (28 December 2018).

Government offices
Preceded by Donald Macrae	Solicitor and Director-General, Legal Services, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (later Director-General for Law and Corporate Services) March 2007–March 2010	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Isabel Letwin	Director-General, Legal Department for Work and Pensions (later Director-General, Professional Services) March 2010–January 2014	Succeeded by Claire Johnston (as Director-General, Legal Services)
Preceded by Anthony Inglese	General Counsel and Solicitor, HM Revenue and Customs February 2014–August 2018	Succeeded by Alan Evans from January 2019; David Bunting acting in interm
Preceded by Ewan McKendrick	Registrar, University of Oxford Since September 2018	Succeeded by Incumbent