Philip Rycroft

Biography

Philip Rycroft was appointed as Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union in October 2017. As Permanent Secretary, he has 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 appointed Second Permanent Secretary, Head of UK Governance Group in the Cabinet Office in June 2015, with responsibility for constitutional and devolution issues, and retains this role.

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.