Jeremy Pocklington CB
Biography
Jeremy Pocklington is the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence (MOD).
Jeremy was previously Permanent Secretary at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) from February 2023 to November 2025.
Prior to this, he was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (September 2021 to February 2023), and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (March 2020 to September 2021).
Jeremy was Director General, Housing, Planning and Building Safety at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government from August 2018 to March 2020. Before that, he was Director General, Energy and Security at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) from February 2015 until August 2018.
Before joining DECC Jeremy was Director of the Enterprise and Growth Unit at HM Treasury responsible for policies on growth, business and infrastructure and for advising on public spending for BIS, DfT, DECC and DEFRA. From 2009 to 2012 he was Director of the Economic and Domestic secretariat at the Cabinet Office. He joined the Treasury in 1997 and has held a range of posts on financial regulation, tax, fiscal policy and corporate finance as well as working as an assistant private secretary to 2 Chief Secretaries.
Permanent Secretary
The Permanent Secretary is the government’s principal civilian adviser on defence, has primary responsibility for policy, finance and planning, and is the Departmental Accounting Officer. He or she reports to the Head of the Civil Service and is a member of the Defence Council, and the Defence Board. He or she co-chairs, with Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), the Defence Strategy Group.
Responsibilities
The Permanent Secretary’s responsibilities include:
- leading defence (with CDS)
- setting strategy for defence, including corporate strategy (subject to ministers’ direction, and together with CDS)
- heading the Department of State and the MOD Civil Service
- providing policy advice to ministers and leading the relationship with other government departments;
- the overall organisation, management and staffing of defence
- performing the full range of Accounting Officer responsibilities, including the delegation of financial and other authority and accountability to senior colleagues, with personal accountability to Parliament for the economic, efficient and effective use of defence resources
Previous roles in government
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Permanent Secretary
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Permanent Secretary
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Permanent Secretary
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Director General, Housing and Planning
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Acting Director General, Energy Transformation and Clean Growth, BEIS
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Director General, Energy and Security, BEIS
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Director General, Markets and Infrastructure Group, DECC