The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has recruited the chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust to be its most senior civil servant.

Paul Kissack joins the department as permanent secretary in October, after being appointed by cabinet secretary Chris Wormald with the backing of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The move marks a return to the civil service for Kissack, who held several senior posts in government between 2005 and 2020, when he left to join JRF.

This includes a year long stint as director general of DEFRA from 2019 and holding the same role at the Department of Health and Social Care for five months the following year.

He has also been a senior civil servant at the Cabinet Office, Department for Education and the Treasury.

In addition, he is a former head of commissioning at the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and spent over two years from 2017 working in New Zealand for its Ministry for Children.

“I am delighted to be rejoining the Civil Service and honoured to be returning to DEFRA,” said Kissack.

“I am hugely looking forward to working with colleagues across the Defra Group, across Government and the many stakeholders who share these ambitions for our country in the years ahead.

Wormald, added: “I would like to congratulate Paul Kissack on his appointment as Permanent Secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

“Paul’s experience of public service delivery in the UK (and New Zealand), and his most recent role leading the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, makes him excellently suited to lead Defra at this time and drive delivery of the Department’s missions.”

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