WORMALD
Christopher

• 1. Career

Sir Christopher Stephen Wormald is a British civil servant serving as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service since 2024.

Career

Wormald joined the Civil Service in 1991, working in the Department for Education (later the Department for Education and Employment). Rising to Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2001 until 2004, he then worked on the Academies programme.

In 2006 Wormald transferred to the newly formed Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), promoted to be Director-General of Local Government and Regeneration. In 2009, he moved to the Cabinet Office as the Head of the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat, succeeding Sir Paul Britton. Following the general election in 2010 and the consequent change in the position of Deputy Prime Minister, Wormald additionally became Head of the Deputy Prime Minister's Office.

In March 2012, Wormald left the Cabinet Office to return to the Department for Education as its Permanent Secretary, replacing Sir David Bell, who had retired to be the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading. As of 2015, Wormald was paid a salary of between £160,000 and £164,999 by DCLG, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time. In January 2016 it was announced that Wormald would transfer to the Department of Health and Social Care later in 2016, replacing Dame Una O'Brien after her retirement as its Permanent Secretary.

Wormald was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2017 Birthday Honours.

In December 2024, it was announced that Wormald would take over from Simon Case as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service. His apppointment was criticised by the Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group claiming he had "refused in the UK COVID Inquiry to accept failures on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care".

In 2025 Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA, said attacks on Wormald “stink of political cowardice", as concerns mount inside the government about his performance. Penman, said anonymous criticism was “hugely damaging”. “Chris Wormald ​is the civil servant’s civil servant​. That is apparently what ​Starmer wanted, someone who won’t be making headlines​,” Penman said.