Lyn McDonald

Biography

Lyn joined the civil service in 1987 as a Direct Entrant Tax Inspector. She spent 16 years in HMRC and specialised in International Taxation on financial transfer pricing and Investment Banks as well as helping to set up the first risk centre. She joined DWP and spent 10 years helping to set up Pension Service contact centres and then led the team which designed, developed and delivered the award winning Tell Us Once Service. She then moved to the Cabinet Office where she helped set up and then lead three cross-government functions for Grants Management, Debt Management and The Public Sector Fraud Authority (formerly the counter fraud function). She also helped set up the highly regarded Five Eyes group on counter fraud and published the Five Eyes technical note on international aid and counter fraud.

She was part of the three person team which helped to launch and develop the Cabinet Office’s second headquarters in Glasgow, championing her native city and also leading the charge on Scotland as a place to have a whole career in the civil service. This led to her taking over the reigns as Director for the Scotland Office as a stand in for parental leave, her most interesting and challenging role to date.