Sir Thomas Whinfield Scholar was born on 17 December 1968 and is a British civil servant who served as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury until 8 September 2022.
14 Facts About Tom Scholar
2.
Tom Scholar was previously the Prime Minister's Adviser on European and Global Issues in the Cabinet Office from 2013 to 2016.
3.
Tom Scholar has been a director of the nationalised bank, Northern Rock and served as Chief of Staff for Gordon Brown.
4.
Tom Scholar was educated at Dulwich College, Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.
5.
Tom Scholar is the son of Sir Michael Scholar who was Permanent Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry between 1996 and 2001.
6.
Tom Scholar has two younger brothers, Richard and John.
7.
Tom Scholar joined HM Treasury in 1992, rising to Principal Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1997, serving Gordon Brown for four years until 2001.
8.
In 2007, following Brown taking over the leadership of the Labour Party and thus the office of Prime Minister, Tom Scholar returned to the UK taking over the two roles of Downing Street Chief of Staff from Jonathan Powell and of Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister from Oliver Robbins.
9.
The next year, Tom Scholar was promoted to be the Second Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, taking over from John Kingman.
10.
Four years later, in 2013 Tom Scholar returned to Downing Street, now under David Cameron, to run the European and Global Issues Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, and was the Prime Minister's most senior adviser on international affairs.
11.
In March 2016 the government announced that Tom Scholar would succeed Sir Nick Macpherson as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury in April 2016.
12.
Tom Scholar was replaced at the Cabinet Office by Oliver Robbins, who took over the role as a "post-Brexit" unit in June 2016, which the next month became the Department for Exiting the European Union when Theresa May created her first Cabinet.
13.
Tom Scholar was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 2017 Birthday Honours and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 2023 New Year Honours.
14.
Tom Scholar was removed from his position as permanent secretary to the Treasury by Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng on 8 September 2022, a move criticised by former senior civil servants including Gus O'Donnell and Robin Butler.