Leigh Lewis

Sir Leigh Warren Lewis KCB (born 1951) is a retired senior British civil servant, who served as the Permanent Secretary for the British Department for Work and Pensions from 2006-2011.

Having graduated in Hispanic studies from Liverpool University, Lewis joined the then Department of Employment as an Administrative Trainee in September 1973. He became Director of Operations for the Unemployment Benefit Service in 1986.

On returning to the Department of Employment in 1991, he became Director of the International Division and later, in 1994, Director of Finance. He retained that post when the Department for Education and the Employment Department Group merged in July 1995.

Lewis was appointed as Chief Executive of the Employment Service following an open competition in January 1997. In January 2001 he was appointed Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, a new business of the Department for Work and Pensions. From April 2002 Jobcentre Plus brought together the Employment Service and those parts of the Benefits Agency which deal with customers of working age, into a single work focused organisation.

In February 2003 Lewis was appointed to the Home Office as Permanent Secretary for Crime, Policing, Counter-Terrorism and Delivery, but subsequently returned to DWP as Permanent Secretary to DWP in late 2005 until his retirement in 2011.[1] Upon which, he was installed as the new chair of the Coalition Government's Commission on a UK Bill of Rights.

Lewis is the Chair of the London-based Homeless charity St Mungo's.

References
  1. Department for Work and Pensions (27 September 2010). "New Permanent Secretary for the Department for Work and Pensions". Retrieved 5 January 2011.


Government offices
Preceded by
Mike Fogden		 Chief Executive
Employment Service at the
Department for Education and Employment
1997-2001		 Succeeded by
Himself
as Chief Executive, Job Centre Plus, DWP
Preceded by
Himself
as Chief Executive, Employment Service, DfEE		 Chief Executive
Job Centre Plus at the
Department for Work and Pensions
2001-2003		 Succeeded by
Lesley Strathie
Preceded by
John Lyon
as Director-General, Policing
and Crime Reduction Group		 Second Permanent Secretary, Crime &c.,
of the Home Office
2003-2005		 Succeeded by
Moira Wallace
as Director-General, Crime,
Policing and Counter Terrorism Group
Preceded by
Sir Richard Mottram		 Permanent Secretary of the
Department for Work and Pensions
2006-2011		 Succeeded by
Robert Devereux
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