Dame Helen Ghosh has been named as the preferred candidate to succeed Dame Glenys Stacey as Chair of the Office for Environmental Protection.
Dame Helen has been selected by the Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds and by Andrew Muir, Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland.
Emma Reynolds has invited both the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee and the Environmental Audit Committee to hold a joint pre-appointment hearing and to report on the suitability of Dame Helen for the post.
Pre-appointment scrutiny is an important part of the appointment process for some of the most significant public appointments made by Ministers. It is designed to provide an added level of scrutiny, to verify that the recruitment meets the principles set out in the Governance Code on Public Appointments.
Pre-appointment hearings are held in public and allow a Select Committee to take evidence from a Minister’s preferred candidate before they are appointed. The Select Committee will then publish a report setting out their views on the candidate’s suitability for the post. Ministers consider the Committee’s views before deciding whether to proceed with the appointment.
Subject to the outcome of the pre-appointment hearing and the final decision of the Environment Secretary and Minister Muir, Dame Helen is expected to take up the post on 1 June 2026.
Dame Helen DCB is a former British civil servant who has been Master of Balliol College, Oxford, since 2018. From 2005 to 2010 she was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and was then Permanent Secretary at the Home Office. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Bath in the 2008 Birthday Honours. She left the Civil Service in 2012 to become Director General of the National Trust.
