Dame Lesley Ann Strathie, DCB (née Cooke; 24 September 1955 – 14 January 2012) was a British senior civil servant. Lesley Ann Cooke was born in

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; ), also known as The Toon or The Cleyhole, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on Loch Ryan and the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. Stranraer is Dumfries ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in 1955. She married David Strathie in 1974; the couple divorced in 1996). They had two children: a son (who predeceased his parents) and a daughter. Lesley Strathie was educated at Stranraer Academy and began her civil service career at age 16 at

's then-

Department of Health and Social Security The Department of Health and Social Security (commonly known as the DHSS) was a Ministry (government department), ministry of the Her Majesty's Government, British government in existence for twenty years from 1968 until 1988, and was headed b ...

, before moving to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1984. She was named

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

of Jobcentre Plus in 2003, and succeeded David Anderson as Acting Chief Executive on 16 May 2005 before being confirmed on 13 October; this appointment also made her the Second

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are ...

to the

Department for Work and Pensions The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for welfare spending, welfare, pensions and child maintenance ...

. In November 2008 she was appointed

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and

HM Revenue and Customs His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (commonly HM Revenue and Customs, or HMRC, and formerly Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) is a department of the UK government responsible for the collection of taxes, the payment of some forms of stat ...

(HMRC), succeeding Dave Hartnett who had worked as Acting Chief Executive and Chairman after the resignation of Paul Gray. Under instructions from ministers, she decreased HMRC staff by thousands and closed hundreds of tax offices leading to complaints that this resulted in worse service to taxpayers. Numerous critical reports by Parliament's

Public Accounts Committee A public accounts committee (PAC) is a committee within a legislature whose role is to study public audits, invite ministers, permanent secretaries or other ministry officials to the committee for questioning, and report on their findings subseque ...

were issued. On 10 June 2010, Strathie appeared on the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

flagship consumer programme ''Watchdog'' as a result of complaints against HMRC, mainly about the high level of mistakes.

Illness and death

Strathie stood down as Chief Executive from HMRC on 9 November 2011 to concentrate on her battle against what proved to be terminal cancer. She died on 14 January 2012, aged 56.

Honours

On 12 June 2010 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath (DCB) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strathie, Lesley 2012 deaths 1955 births British chief operating officers British chief executives Chief executives of HM Revenue and Customs Civil servants in the Scottish Office Deaths from cancer in the United Kingdom Dames Commander of the Order of the Bath People educated at Stranraer Academy Place of death missing People from Stranraer Second Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions British women chief executives