Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Office

The Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department was the most senior civil servant in the Lord Chancellor's Department and a senior member of Her Majesty's Civil Service. Officially titled Her Majesty's Permanent Under-Secretary of State to the Lord Chancellor's Department (although the full title was rarely used) the Permanent Secretary oversaw the day-to-day running of the Department. The position ceased to exist in 2003 when the Lord Chancellor's Department was subsumed into the newly created Department for Constitutional Affairs, which became the Ministry of Justice in 2007. Despite existing for 118 years the position was held by only nine individuals,^[1] most notably Claud Schuster who served as Permanent Secretary for 29 years under 10 different Lord Chancellors.^[2]