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Rowlands is new Humphrey
Page 10
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• The most powerful civil servant in the Department of Transport is to be replaced In the next month.
Rachel Lomax, the current permanent secretary, is leaving to become deputy-governor of the Bank of England.
Her replacement is David Rowlands, 55, currently in charge of railways and aviation. He has been with the Department for Transport since 1983.
The permanent secretary occupies the same position in the civil service as Sir Humphrey did in the comedy series Yes Minister. Rowlands will be the most important civil servant adviser to minister Alistair Darling. The salary range for permanent secretaries is between 1132,925 and 1224,950.
A spokesman for the Freight Transport Association says that Rowlands is well-known to the association.
The spokesman adds: "We have had meetings with him in the past and in the last year we have been impressed with Rachel Lomax. It is clearly a very important job. Everybody knows that despite having the fourth biggest economy in the world we have a second-rate road network."
It is understood that Downing Street wants Rowlands to put the £180bn 10-year transport plan back on course.
The Prime Minister recently admitted in an interview that the government's transport policy had not been successful and said it "had a long, long way to go".