Nicholas Beverley Joicey is Second Permanent Secretary and Group Chief Operating Officer at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He was briefly Director General of the Cabinet Office's Economic and Domestic Secretariat, having previously been Director General for Finance at the Department for Work and Pensions, and before that, Director General for Strategy, International and Finance at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He previously worked as private secretary and speech writer to United Kingdom Chancellor Gordon Brown, as a journalist at The Observer newspaper and as director of the International Department at HM Treasury.