Sir Robin Urquhart Young, KCB (born 7 September 1948) is a British retired

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. He was

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day ...

for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport from 1998 to 2001 and

for the Department of Trade & Industry from 2001 to 2005.

Personal life

Young was born in 1948, and educated at Fettes College,

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and at

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

. He was appointed

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(KCB) in the

2002 Queen's Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in su ...

Career

Young joined the Department of Environment where he worked on housing, environment and local government policy, later becoming Principal Private Secretary to Ministers during the 1980s. From April 1994 to June 1997 he was First Director of the

Government Office for London Government Offices for the English Regions (GOs) were established in 1994 by the John Major government. Until 2011, they were the primary means by which a wide range of policies and programmes of the Government of the United Kingdom were delivere ...

. Between July 1997 and May 1998, he was Head of Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat,

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...

. He was then

at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. From June 2001 to March 2005, he was Permanent Secretary at the Department of Trade & Industry. After leaving the Civil Service in 2005, he went into business and was chairman at

Dr Foster Intelligence Dr Foster Intelligence is a provider of healthcare information in the United Kingdom, monitoring the performance of the National Health Service and providing information to the public. It was launched in February 2006 and is owned by Telstra. Dr F ...

, East of England International (EEI), Apex Communications, Circle Anglia, and

A4e A4e (''Action for Employment'') was a for-profit, welfare-to-work company based in the United Kingdom. The company began in Sheffield in 1991 with the objective to provide redundant steelworkers with the training required to obtain new jobs. Th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Robin 1948 births Living people Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Culture, Media and Sport Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Trade and Industry Alumni of University College, Oxford Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Civil servants in the Department of the Environment Civil servants in the Cabinet Office Private secretaries in the British Civil Service People educated at Fettes College