Emily Middleton

(asked on 29th August 2025) - View Source

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2024 to Question 6107 on Emily Middleton, what the business need was for appointing the Director General, Digital Centre Design under recruitment principles Exemption 1.


Answered by
Kanishka Narayan Portrait
Kanishka Narayan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This question was answered on 15th September 2025

Ms Middleton was appointed under Exemption 1 of the recruitment principles on the basis of immediate need and with the required specialist skills to meet government priorities. The priority role was required off the back of Machinery of Government changes, with a key requirement to develop the scope and design of the new digital centre of government, including its overall strategy and blueprint for delivering a modern digital government. This case for exceptional appointment was set out in the request for Civil Service Commission approval, which was released on 24 September 2024 (FOI 2024/00289) as Annex A and agreement for this to be pursued under exception 1 can be found in annex C.

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