The Prime Minister's chief public servant, Andrew Kibblewhite, offered his resignation to John Key for breaching the no-surprises rule in matters crucial to the David Henry inquiry, but it was rejected.
Mr Kibblewhite, however, has apologised to Mr Key for failing to tell him that the content of emails between United Future leader Peter Dunne and reporter Andrea Vance had been sent to the Henry inquiry into the leak of a report into the Government Communications Security Bureau spy agency.
"It was implicit in the conversation he was having with me that if I wanted his resignation it would have been there," Mr Key said at his post-Cabinet press conference yesterday. "I certainly wouldn't accept his resignation."
Mr Key found out last Friday that the inquiry had been sent email content; Mr Kibblewhite, chief executive of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, knew about it for about a month.