Sue Gray report: Who is Sue Gray? What are her roles and responsibilities? What previous roles did she have in government?

Sue Gray’s name appeared everywhere ever since it was revealed in an exclusive interview that the government hosted a Christmas party at Downing Street during lockdown in December 2021.

Before this piece of news, Mrs Gray has been portrayed as ‘unknown but highly influential’ and has even been described as ‘an enigma’.

Even now with report being published, there is little information out there about Mrs Gray herself and when she started working with the government.

So here is everything you need to know about her and what her current responsibilities are in government.

Who is Sue Gray?

She was born in London to Irish parents who moved to Tottenham in the early 1950s. Her father was a furniture salesman and her mother was a barmaid.

She studied at a state-funded Roman Catholic school and after her father’s sudden death in 1975, she chose not to go to university and joined the Civil Service straight from school.

She took a career hiatus in the late 1980s, which was known to some as unexpected, and ran a pub in Newry, Northern Ireland, during The Troubles, with her husband Bill Conlon, who is a country singer from Portaferry, County Down.

Around a decade later, she joined the Cabinet Office in the late 1990s following previous roles for health, transport, and work and pensions.

She gradually rose the ranks as the director in the Cabinet Office and from 2012 she was director-general of the propriety and ethics team and head of the Private Offices Group, directly under the Cabinet Secretary.

When she managed the ministerial offices and ethics in government, and as such taking on sensitive matters and crises around how government is run, Mrs Gray was described as ‘the woman who runs the country’.

In 2012, she alone ran the ‘Plebgate’ inquiry inside the Cabinet Office as part of her numerous duties and in April 2018, it was announced that Mrs Gray would be replaced at the Cabinet Office by Helen MacNamara.

However, three years later in May 2021, she returned to the Cabinet Office to take up the role of second permanent secretary reporting to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

What are Sue Gray’s current roles and responsibilities?

The role of second permanent secretary is in charge of the Union and Constitution, which is responsible for both the Union Directorate and the UK Governance Group.

This role is also the sponsor for the Grenfell Tower and Infected Blood Independent Public Inquiries.

After it was leaked by press reports that gatherings and parties on government premises had taken place during Covid-19 restrictions during the height of the pandemic in December 2021, widely referred to as ‘Partygate’, the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case instigated and led an investigation into the allegations.

A few days later it was revealed that an event had been held in his own office and as a result, he was replaced by Mrs Gray to take over the investigation.

Her initial findings were released on January 31, 2022, however, the full report is yet to be announced.

What were Sue Gray’s previous roles in government?

She served as the director general, propriety and ethics in the Cabinet Office from 2012 to 2018.

Before she joined the Cabinet Office, she worked in Transport, Health, and DWP covering a range of roles including both policy and front line delivery.