Secretary to Sir John Chilcot’s Iraq Inquiry named

The head of the Secretariat for Sir John Chilcot’s committee of inquiry into Iraq has been named today.

Margaret Aldred CB CBE, who’s currently Director General and Deputy Head of the Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, is to become the Secretary to the Inquiry. She will begin her duties shortly.

Ms Aldred joined the Civil Service as a graduate trainee in 1975.  She spent 25 years in the Ministry of Defence, where she worked in a wide range of areas, including three years as the Principal Private Secretary to the Defence Secretary.  Her last post in the MoD was Director General Management and Organisation.  She has also worked in HM Treasury and the Home Office, and took up her current post in the Cabinet Office in November 2004. 

Ms Aldred was appointed CBE in the 1991 Gulf Honours list, and CB in the 2009 New Years Honours list.