Note from Permanent Secretary - urgent Covid-19 update

From: Mike Brennan

Date: 23 March 2020

To: All Staff

1. Due to the critical stage we are in and the need to further reduce non-essential social contact, from Tuesday 24 March the Permanent Secretary’s Office and Private Office will only be delivering and responding to essential work and services.

2. Officials are asked to refrain from emailing the Permanent Secretary’s Office unless the correspondence is COVID business essential. Emails should continue to be sent to permanent.secretarysupport@economy-ni.gov.uk and these will be prioritised and dealt with as quickly as is possible with the very restricted staff and IT resources currently available. Officials should also continue to use the generic emails accounts for the Assembly Business Unit and Private Office.

3. For Covid-19 specific queries contact DfE Departmental Operations Centre: DOC.DFE@economy-ni.gov.uk

Urgent queries

4. For urgent queries only:

• Permanent Secretary queries contact Michelle Bell: Michelle.Bell@economy-ni.gov.uk or call 07979 804957.
• Assembly Business queries contact Sharon Smyth: Sharon.Smyth@economy-ni.gov.uk or call 07342 091859.
• Private Office queries contact Dan Cartland: Dan.Cartland@economy-ni.gov.uk or call 07834 393332.

5. Sponsor Branches are asked to bring this memo to the immediate attention of sponsor bodies.

6. I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to each and every one of you for the important role you continue to play in helping to delay this virus and supporting those affected.

7. Look after yourselves and each other.

Mike Brennan
Permanent Secretary