Lin Homer

Dame Lin Homer DCB
Lin Homer, July 2013
Permanent Secretary of the Department for Transport
In office 2011–2011
Minister	Philip Hammond (until October), Justine Greening (from October)
Preceded by	Robert Devereux
Succeeded by	Philip Rutnam
Permanent Secretary of HM Revenue and Customs
In office 2012 – April 2016
Minister	George Osborne
Preceded by	Lesley Strathie
Succeeded by	Jon Thompson
Personal details
Born	Linda Margaret Homer (1957-03-04) 4 March 1957 (age 60) Norfolk, England, UK
Nationality	British
Occupation	Civil servant

Dame Linda "Lin" Margaret Homer DCB (born 4 March 1957) is a retired British civil servant who served as chief executive of HM Revenue and Customs between 2012 and 2016.

Homer was born in Sheringham, Norfolk, and educated in Beccles, Suffolk at Sir John Leman High School, where she served as head girl. She attended University College London, where she obtained an LLB degree.

Homer qualified as a lawyer in 1980 whilst at Reading Borough Council. In 1982, she joined Hertfordshire County Council where she stayed for 15 years, rising to director of corporate services. She then left to join Suffolk County Council as chief executive in 1998. After four years at Suffolk, Homer went on to be the chief executive of Birmingham City Council in 2002 and joined the civil service in 2005.

In 2005, Homer was criticised by the Election Commissioner for failings in her role as returning officer during a postal vote-rigging scandal involving Labour candidates the previous year, described by the Commissioner as one that "would disgrace a banana republic", and involving hundreds of votes failing to be counted. Homer defended her role to the Election Commission, saying she had been in "strategic, not operational control", and had confined herself to "motivational management and fire fighting".

Homer resigned from her post shortly afterwards, joining the civil service as the Director-General heading the Immigration and Nationality Directorate of the Home Office, in August 2005. The Home Office was re-organised in 2008, with the formation of the Border and Immigration Agency, later renamed the UK Border Agency, of which Homer became the first chief executive. In 2013, Homer's tenure at UKBA was criticised for its "catastrophic leadership failure" by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which said it had been repeatedly misled by the Agency. Committee chairman Keith Vaz said her performance was "more like the scene of a Whitehall farce than a government agency operating in the 21st century". Homer responded in a letter to the committee, saying that "The suggestion that I deliberately misled the Committee and refused to apologise are both untrue and unfair," adding that "It is therefore wholly inaccurate and unfair to seek to ascribe responsibility to me for matters of concern that occurred long after I left the Agency."