Andrew Mackersie’s previous career was in Westminster and Whitehall. As a senior civil servant in the Cabinet Office, he was the “usual channels” (the interface between government and opposition front benches, responsible for the parliamentary programme) during the Cameron-Clegg coalition and led a set of ministerial private offices. As a clerk in the House of Lords, he led teams supporting select committees on questions of public policy and worked for the law lords when the final court of appeal was based there. He has also worked with the households. In the now distant past, he read history at Oxford.