Shona Dunn

Shona Hunter Dunn (born 15 October 1969) is the CEO of the First Aid charity St John Ambulance and a former British civil servant, serving from 2018 to 2021 as the Second Permanent Secretary at the Home Office and from April 2021 to May 2024 as the Second Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care.

Biography Dunn read for a BSc in biology at the University of Birmingham and then an MSc in ecology at Durham University, where her thesis was on "the affects [sic] of habitat fragmentation on the woodland edge micro-climate and on the structure and composition of woodland ground flora", after which she joined the Department for Environment in 1995 as a policy adviser.

In 2013, Dunn was promoted to serve as director-general for education standards in the Department for Education, replacing Stephen Meek. After three years, she was appointed as the next Head of the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat, replacing Jonathan Slater in 2016. She returned to her role as Second Permanent Secretary following the appointment of Matthew Rycroft as Permanent Secretary in March 2020.

In April 2021 Dunn left the Home Office to become Second Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care.

She was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for public service.

In May 2024 it was announced that the Priory of England and the Islands of the Order of St John had approved Dunn's appointment as the next CEO of St John Ambulance with her due to take up the post in September 2024.

Offices held