Chief digital officer Joanna Davinson departs interim role with departmental head Emran Mian to take on oversight of GDS, while future leadership plans are to be confirmed ‘in due course’

The government chief digital officer Joanna Davinson has concluded her interim term and departed the civil service, PublicTechnology can reveal.

Following the completion of Davinson’s nine-month contract of employment – which concluded on Wednesday of last week – it is understood that oversight of the work of the Government Digital Service and Whitehall’s wider digital and data function will be taken over by Emran Mian, the permanent secretary of the unit’s home department. Mian will work alongside other senior leaders of GDS and longer-term leadership will be made clear “in due course”, PublicTechnology understands.

Given that Davinson’s appointment was made on an interim basis, ministers said in June that a permanent government chief digital officer would be recruited – and that the appointment would be made via an open competition.

With the short-term GCDO now gone, the role has still yet to be advertised or opened for applications.

PublicTechnology asked the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology whether the intention is still to hire a direct replacement. The department indicated that its plans for future leadership of GDS and government digital more widely will be confirmed in time.

Davinson’s stint as GCDO was, effectively, her second spell in the role, having previously spent 18 months leading government’s digital operations as head of the then Central Digital and Data Office. She left CDDO – and retired – in September 2022, shortly after Mike Potter was appointed as the first formal government chief digital officer. Having returned to work in autumn 2023 after being treated for cancer, Potter ultimately resigned his post in September 2024 “to focus on my health and recovery”.

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His departure came shortly after the incoming Labour government announced a major shake-up of civil service tech operations, with an expanded GDS to be moved from the Cabinet Office to DSIT to create a new-look ‘digital centre of government’.

In December of last year, Davinson came out of retirement to take on the government chief digital officer role – and, with it, leadership of the beefed-up GDS.

Since then, a wider executive rejig has taken place, including former GDS chief executive Christine Bellamy being moved into a new role as government chief product officer, Lindsay Mason being appointed as interim government chief data officer, and DSIT appointing several new senior leaders at director or director-general level with remits related to digital government.

There has also recently been a change at the very top of the tech department, with permanent secretary Sarah Munby departing this summer, to be replaced by DSIT’s former director general for digital technologies and telecoms, Emran Mian (pictured on the right, with Davinson on the left).

Following Davinson’s departure, PublicTechnology understands that the incoming perm sec will work with the rest of the GDS leadership team to take on direct responsibility for overseeing the operations of the digital centre – which now constitutes a significant proportion of DSIT’s workforce.

The change in executive leadership comes shortly after a near-complete revamp of DSIT’s ministerial line-up.

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