Michael George Bichard, Baron Bichard, KCB, is a former public servant in the United Kingdom, first in local and then as a civil servant in central government. He currently serves as the Director of the Institute for Government and as Chair of the Design Council. He was a created a life peer on 24 March 2010.
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Bichard served as the Chief Executive of Brent and then Gloucestershire Local Authorities during the 1980s.
In 1990, he was appointed Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency.
In 1995, Bichard was made Permanent Secretary of the Department for Employment. When it merged with the Department for Education (DfE) to form the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), he became Permanent Secretary of the combined department, under Gillian Shephard, and then, post-1997, David Blunkett. He became extremely close to Blunkett, even at one point intervening personally - according to the Daily Mail - to ensure that details of an affair that Blunkett was conducting with his Private Secretary should not become public.[1] During his time as Permanent Secretary, he introduced several modernising reforms to the Department, notably in bringing its use of information technology and new media up to date. He oversaw some significant changes to the education policy landscape, such as the introduction of the Learning and Skills Council to fund further education and apprenticeships.
In May 2001 he retired from the Civil Service, when DfEE and the Department for Social Security were split into the Department for Education and Skills and Department for Work and Pensions.
In September 2001 Bichard was appointed Rector of The University of the Arts London.
In 2004, the Home Secretary David Blunkett (previously Bichard's minister as Secretary of State for Education and Employment) appointed Bichard to chair an inquiry into the "Soham murders" of two 10-year-old girls; the inquiry has since been known as the "Bichard Inquiry".
He was non-Executive Chair of RSe Consulting from 2003-2008. RSe Consulting provided strategic and management consulting services to local government and became part of Tribal Group Plc in 2008.
Bichard was appointed Chair of the Legal Services Commission in April 2005. There he introduced a range of reforming measures aimed at modernising the legal aid system. He was also chair of the educational charity Rathbone.
Bichard left these two roles in September 2008 when he became the Director of the Institute for Government.
Bichard is now Chair of the Board of FILMCLUB, a nationwide after-school film club scheme which is free to state primary and secondary schools and an efficiency advisor to the Ten Group.[2]
Bichard was appointed as a knight in the Order of the Bath in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1999.[3] On the recommendation of the House of Lords Appointments Commission, he was created life peer 24 March 2010,[4] as Baron Bichard, of Nailsworth in the County of Gloucestershire.[5] He was introduced in the House of Lords on 29 March,[6] where he will sit on the crossbenches.
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Vincent Scroggins |
Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, Department for Employment 1990-1995 |
Succeeded by Peter Mathison |
| Preceded by Sir Nicholas Monck |
Permanent Secretary of the Department for Employment 1995 |
Succeeded by Himself as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education and Employment |
| Preceded by Himself as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Employment |
Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education and Employment 1995-2001 |
Succeeded by Sir David Normington as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education and Skills |
| Preceded by Sir Timothy Lankester as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education |
Succeeded by Rachel Lomax as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions |
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