Tory anger as top mandarin at international aid department gets knighthood

Sir Mark Lowcock was knighted in the New Year Honours

Sir Mark Lowcock at committee (House of Commons)

The most senior civil servant at the Department for International Development has been awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours list.

Sir Mark Lowcock’s knighthood sparked criticism from Conservative MP after previous criticism of the way DfID had spent aid.

Chancellor Philip Hammond was previously forced to announce a review of the department’s aid spending after the Public Accounts Committee found millions had been allocated to construct an unusable airport on the remote South Atlanic island of St Helena.

A report by the Public Accounts Committee said of the £285m facility: “It is staggering that the department did not foresee and address the impact of difficult wind conditions on landing commercial aircraft safely.”

Ministers are responsible for the spending decisions of their departments, while Sir Mark is a civil servant, in charge of day-to-day operations and implementation.

The career civil servant, who started working at the department in 1985, has however been blamed for some controversial allocations of Britain's £12bn foreign aid budget.

Conservative MP Philip Davies told the Daily Mail newspaper that the mandarin “certainly hasn’t been knighted for services to the UK taxpayer”. The MP accused the civil servant of “squandering” aid money.

Other public servants to have received honours in the honours list include Sarah Pearson, head of customer services at the personal tax division of HM Revenue & Customs; Oliver Morley, the chief executive of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency; and David Behan, who has served as the chief executive of the Care Quality Commission since 2012.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper report that civil servants at Theresa May’s former department the Home Office have been given more gongs than at any other institution in Whitehall.

The Government however defended the list: “Honours are rewards for hard work and contributions to civic society,” a government source said. “All nominations for honours are assessed by one of the nine independent honours committees.”