Second Permanent Secretary and Deputy Chief Executive, Office for National Statistics

Policy Leaders Fellow Alumna, Centre for Science and Policy

Sam Beckett became Second Permanent Secretary and Deputy Chief Executive at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in September 2020, with a remit to deliver the radical and ambitious programme of work set out in the ONS strategy "Statistics for the Public Good". She remains Deputy Head of the Government Economics Service. Her previous role was as Acting Permanent Secretary of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Sam joined the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS, the predecessor of BEIS) in November 2013 as Director General for Economics and Markets. In this role she was responsible for developing, delivering, and tracking the impact of the government’s work on trade, labour markets and the wider business environment to deliver the growth agenda; championing the use of high quality economics and analysis so that BIS’s choices are based on the best available evidence; and the government’s competition and consumer policies.

Sam joined BIS from the Cabinet Office where she was Director of the Economic and Domestic Secretariat. Before that she was Director of Fiscal Group in HM Treasury leading the fiscal policy response to the financial crisis and the Government’s engagement with the Credit Rating Agencies on the UK’s sovereign rating.