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Sir Thomas Whinfield Scholar (born 17 December 1968) is a former British civil servant, who served as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury from 2016 to 2022. Following his exit from the UK Civil Service in September 2022, Scholar began to take up non-executive directorships in the private sector, including as chair of Santander UK from August 2025. As a civil servant, Scholar held multiple roles across various governments, including as an adviser on European and global issues in the Cabinet Office from 2013 to 2016, a director of Northern Rock post its nationalisation in 2008 and as chief of staff for Gordon Brown from mid 2007 to January 2008.
He is the son of Sir Michael Scholar, who was Permanent Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry between 1996 and 2001. He has two younger brothers, Richard and John (who is a lecturer in English literature at the University of Reading and worked at the Treasury).
In 2007, following Brown's taking over the leadership of the Labour Party and thus the office of Prime Minister, Scholar returned to the UK, taking over the two roles of Downing Street Chief of Staff from Jonathan Powell and Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister from Oliver Robbins. After six months, Scholar left Number 10 to return to the Treasury as the Managing Director of its International and Finance Directorate in January 2008. The next year, Scholar was promoted to be the Second Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, taking over from John Kingman. In this role, Scholar was a director of the nationalised bank, Northern Rock.
Four years later, in 2013, 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. As of September 2015, Scholar was paid a salary of between £150,000 and £154,999, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.
In March 2016, the government announced that Scholar would succeed Nick Macpherson as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury in April 2016. 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.
He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2017 Birthday Honours and promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the same Order (GCB) by King Charles III in the 2023 New Year Honours.
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. Following the sacking, Dave Penman, General Secretary of the FDA, accused Truss of conducting an "ideological purge" of top officials.
In December 2023 he was appointed as non-executive chair of Nomura Europe Holdings plc, Nomura International plc and Nomura Bank International plc, subsidiaries of Nomura Holdings.
In May 2025, Scholar was appointed as non-executive director of Santander UK and later assumed the role of chair in August 2025, replacing William Vereker.
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