The government is no longer recruiting for a new top new civil servant post, after the U-turn announcement that Mark Lewin would be staying on as chief executive officer at the Department for Enterprise after all.

Mr Lewin had been appointed as chief operating officer (COO) for the government – a new role in the Cabinet Office.

He was the chief executive of the Department for Enterprise when he was appointed to the role – but he kept his job at DfE until a successor was appointed.

However, last week it was announced that he’d be staying at the DfE.

In fact, he had been doing two jobs – in charge of DfE and as chief operating officer - since July 2021.

A government spokesman yesterday told the Examiner that ‘the ongoing structure of the Cabinet Office is being considered and as such there are no immediate plans to recruit into the COO role’.

When the role was conceived, this had also been as a result of a ‘revision’ of the Cabinet Office’s management structure.

Chief Minister (and acting enterprise minister) Alfred Cannan said he had asked Mr Lewin to ‘return to the department full time in order to provide stability, and to support the [new] economic strategy and all the major initiatives that will flow from that.’

The COO oversaw strategic projects such as Covid-19, climate change, and the implementation of the Sir Jonathan Michael’s healthcare report, and operational services within the Cabinet Office such as Government Technology Services (GTS), the Office of Human Resources and the Isle of Man Borders team including immigration.

These will all now be the responsibility of the interim chief secretary.

Since the employment tribunal of Dr Rosalind Ranson, there have been a number of changes at the top of the civil service including the departure of Chief Secretary Will Greenhow.