Oliver Robbins

Who is Oliver Robbins?

Oliver Robbins is a senior British Civil Servant who currently serves as the UK's Deputy National Security Advisor at the Cabinet Office.

Having read PPE at Hertford College, Oxford, Robbins joined HM Treasury in 1996 on graduation, serving as Head of Corporate and Private Finance from 2003-2006, and then briefly as Head of Defence, Diplomacy and Intelligence finance.

He was appointed as Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street in 2006, replacing Ivan Rogers for the last part of Tony Blair's administration and the start of Gordon Brown's. When Brown re-set the Prime Minister's Office organisation to be more like its pre-1997 form, Robbins briefly served as Director of the Office before leaving Number 10 in 2007 to becoming the Director of Intelligence and Security — later, Director of Intelligence, Security and Resilience — in the Cabinet Office.

In 2010, David Cameron's incoming administration re-organised the National Security apparatus, and Robbins was appointed to the new position of Deputy National Security Advisor, in which he still serves.