Clare Moriarty

In March 2019, she left her role as Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and became the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, replacing Philip Rycroft. Following the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU at the end of January 2020 and the closure of the Department for Exiting the European Union, Moriarty left the civil service in March 2020.

She was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2016 New Year Honours.

Moriarty held roles in the Department of Health, the Ministry of Justice, Department for Transport (DfT) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). At the DfT, she was Director General Corporate Group and, from January 2013, Director General for Rail. She was appointed Permanent Secretary for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in August 2015. As of 2015, Moriarty was paid a salary of between £160,000 and £164,999 by the department, making her one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.

Clare Moriarty CB (born 6 April 1963) is a British civil servant, who served as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) from March 2019 until January 2020. In November 2017, she was appointed the first civil service “faith and belief” champion, to represent all faiths and beliefs and promote interfaith dialogue.

Moriarty was born on 6 April 1963. She is the daughter of Michael John Moriarty, a career civil servant. She was educated at North London Collegiate School, an all-girls independent school in London. She studied maths at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1985.