Hello and welcome to this morning to Institute for Government webinar. I'm Emma Norris.

After weeks of speculation and many rounds of interviews, we now know the identity of the new

Cabinet Secretary. It's Sir Chris Wormald. But who is Chris Wormald? Well, he is, as has been

noted, perhaps both the conventional pick and also the surprise choice for the country's top civil servant,

because Kirstama has chosen Wormald to help him lead a complete rewiring of the British state,

which to some people perhaps doesn't sound like the task for a career civil servant,

who served as permanent secretary at the Department of Education and now the Department of Health.

But to others, it's Wormald's

deep experience of the civil service, which makes him exactly what Stama needs at a time when

his relatively new ministers are still getting to grips with the challenges of government.

So let's take a look at what Wemel brings to the job, what's waiting in his in-tray, how exactly

he could go about that big rewiring job,

and what steps he can take to ensure that the civil service is able to deliver Kirstonan's priorities.

Joining me to discuss all of these questions and more, and please do send in your questions any time from now,

are a duo of top IFG civil service watches, Alex Thomas and Kath Haddon.

And we're also joined today by Sir David Littington, former Minister of the Cabinet Office

and somebody who has lots of first-hand experience of how government works or sometimes doesn't work.

So, David, I'm going to come to you first. Tell us your reaction to the appointment.

Thanks. Chris Wormwood is not somebody I claim to know particularly well, but I think he's a very experienced civil servant. He will have a decent start

in that the fact he has been a permanent secretary, the head of a government department for a number of years, means that he will be seen by his peer group as somebody with experience with weight.

I think one of the problems that Simon Case had throughout his tenure has been that he was not a permanent secretary before he became cabinet secretary and therefore the barons around the table amongst the departmental permanent secretaries I think were less inclined than they might have been to accept his authority as a given. I think that would be different with Chris Wormald.

But I think he faces massive challenges. Not least of the fact is that although it's only six months since the general election,

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