Philip Rycroft

Distinguished honorary researcher at Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge

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Distinguished honorary researcher, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge
Policy Leaders Fellow Alumnus, Centre for Science and Policy

Philip Rycroft was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) between October 2017 and March 2019. As Permanent Secretary, he had responsibility for leading the department in all its work on the Government’s preparations for Brexit. Before taking up this role, he was Second Permanent Secretary at DExEU.

Philip was also Second Permanent Secretary, Head of UK Governance Group in the Cabinet Office, with responsibility for constitutional and devolution issues, from June 2015 until March 2019.

From 2012 to 2015 he was the Director General in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, supporting the Deputy Prime Minister across the full range of his policy interests. Prior to that, he was Corporate Affairs Director at Hutchison Whampoa (Europe) Ltd.

Previous roles have mainly been in government, including:

  • Director General, Innovation and Enterprise and Chief Executive of the Better Regulation Executive in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
  • Director General, Education in the Scottish Government
  • Head of the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department in the Scottish Executive.

Philip also spent time on secondment from government with Scottish & Newcastle plc and in the Cabinet of Vice-President Leon Brittan in the European Commission.

Mark Wilson

Policy Profession Unit
Beatriz Brown

Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
Rupert Furness

Department for Transport (DfT)
Mark Roberts

Environmental Standards Scotland
Tiffany Perry

AI Safety Institute, UK Government
Carolyn Bartlett

Valuation Office Agency
Jess Adkins

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
Iain Harrison

Counter-Terrorism Policing HQ
Tom Maitland

Confederation of British Industry (CBI)
Graham Pendlebury

Department for Transport (DfT)
Rt Hon Darren Jones

UK Parliament
Dr Matthew Gill

Institute for Government (IfG)
Dr Rachel Cooper

Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education

Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge

Distinguished honorary researcher

  • 3 October 2019, 5pm

    The makings of Brexit and the road ahead

    On the cusp of the UK's exit from the EU, Philip Rycroft will reflect on his seven years at the centre of the UK Government to ask how we have reached this point in the country's history.

  • 26 June 2019, 9:30am

    CSaP Annual Conference 2019

    CSaP's Annual Conference will bring together members of our network from government, academia and elsewhere to discuss some of the policy challenges we have worked on over the past year.

View all events

  • In news articles

    Place policy beyond Brexit

    Speaking at CSaP's 2019 annual conference, former DExEu Permanent Secretary, Philip Rycroft, suggested that the UK is facing both practical and existential questions in the face of Brexit.