The current Chief of the Defence Staff is General Sir David Richards who succeeded Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup on Friday 29 October 2010. Chiefs of the Defence Staff are appointed on the recommendation of the Secretary of State for Defence to the Prime Minister before being approved by HM The Queen.[1]
Customarily, former Chiefs of Defence Staff receive a life peerage on retirement, sitting in the House of Lords as non-political crossbench peers. Their appointment is recommended not via the House of Lords Appointments Commission as is normal procedure, but is instead nominated directly to Her Majesty The Queen by the Prime Minister; whom elects to nominate 'a limited number of distinguished public servants' on retirement for a peerage.
As with tradition, The Queen has already signified that she intends to ennoble the former Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Jock Stirrup, his title will be determined in due course.[2][3]
Supporting and associated posts
The CDS is supported by a deputy, the Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, who since 1997 (when the CDS post was downgraded) has been of equivalent rank but is ordinarily from a different service to the CDS. Currently, however, this is not the case as both the Chief and Vice Chief of the Defence Staff are Army officers. There are also several Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (DCDS) posts who support the VCDS. As of 2010 these are:[4]
- Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Operations) - the DCDS (Operations) ordinarily reports to the VCDS but also reports directly to the CDS on operational matters
- Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Personnel and Training)
- Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Capability)
The CDS also works alongside the Ministry of Defence's Permanent Under Secretary who is the senior civil servant in the MOD. The CDS focusses on military operations and strategy while the PUS's remit concerns political and financial policy.
History of the post
The post was created in 1959 to reflect the new conceptions of joint operations that had come to the fore in World War II. The first incumbent was Marshal of the RAF Sir William Dickson. Prior to the creation of the post, Sir William Dickson served as the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1956 onwards. Before 1956, although no permanent post of chairman existed, the three service chiefs took it in turn to act as chairman at meetings. From 1959 until the mid-late 1970s, CDS appointments were granted on a strict rotational basis between the three services. In more recent years, there has been a trend towards favouring Army appointments over the two other services.
From the creation of the post until 1997, the Chief of the Defence Staff was appointed to the highest rank in the respective branch of the British armed forces to which he belonged, being an Admiral of the Fleet, a Field Marshal or Marshal of the Royal Air Force, (NATO rank code OF-10). However, with the post-Cold War size of the British Armed Forces and the reasoning that no new Field Marshals are to be routinely appointed in peacetime, since 1997 the Chief of the Defence Staff has been appointed at the rank of Admiral, General or Air Chief Marshal, (NATO OF-9).