Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell

Frederick Edward Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell (born 3 January 1938) is a retired British civil servant, now sitting in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.

Early life and family Butler was born in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, on 3 January 1938. He went to Orley Farm School and Harrow School (where he was Head Boy), then taught for a year at St Dunstan's School, Burnham-on-Sea, before attending University College, Oxford, where he took a double first in Mods and Greats and twice gained a Rugby Blue. He married Gillian Lois Galley in 1962. They have two daughters and a son.

Civil service career Butler had a high-profile career in the civil service from 1961 to 1998, serving as Private Secretary to five Prime Ministers. He was Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Home Civil Service from 1988 to 1998.

Butler joined HM Treasury in 1961, becoming Private Secretary to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1964–66 and Secretary to the Budget Committee 1965–69.

In 1969, he was seconded to the Bank of England and several City institutions. Later at HM Treasury as Assistant Secretary, General Expenditure Intelligence Division, he led the team which installed the UK Government's computerised financial information system 1975–77. He had been a founder member of the Central Policy Review Staff under Lord Rothschild 1971–2. After several senior appointments at the Treasury, he became second Permanent Secretary, Public Expenditure, 1985–87.

Butler was Private Secretary to Prime Ministers Edward Heath (1972–74) and Harold Wilson (1974–75), and Principal Private Secretary to Margaret Thatcher (1982–85). and was raised to the peerage as Baron Butler of Brockwell, of Herne Hill in the London Borough of Lambeth.

He was a non-executive Director of HSBC Group from 1998 to 2008. He was also Chairman of the Corporate Sustainability Committee and the HSBC Global Education Trust. In 2011 he was elected Master of the Worshipful Company of Salters.

In 2004, Lord Butler of Brockwell chaired the Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction, widely known as the 'Butler Review', which reviewed the use of intelligence in the lead up to the 2003 Iraq War. The report concluded that some of the intelligence about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction was seriously flawed. The report also concluded, with regards to the so-called Niger uranium forgeries, that the report Saddam's government was seeking uranium in Africa appeared 'well-founded'.

Lord Butler of Brockwell in 2025 warned that the UK is moving towards a US-style system, in which new governments replace senior civil servants with political appointees. He said: "It seems to me that, overall, a clear pattern is emerging. We have moved to the American pattern of replacing senior civil servants with political appointees when the party of government changes. As one of my former colleagues said to me, civil servants in the centre of government have become an endangered species."

Honours and arms Honours Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO), 1986 New Year Honours Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB), 1988 New Year Honours Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB), 1992 Birthday Honours Life peerage, 12 February 1998 Privy Counsellor (PC), 2004

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