Philip Rutnam

Sir Philip McDougall Rutnam, KCB (born 19 June 1965) is a British former civil servant who was Permanent Secretary at the Home Office from 2017 until his resignation on 29 February 2020. Prior to this, he was the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport for five years. Upon resigning, he announced his intention to sue for constructive dismissal against Home Secretary Priti Patel.

Born in Bromley, Rutnam was educated at Dulwich College Preparatory School, Dulwich College, Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and Harvard University.

Rutnam joined the Civil Service in 1987 where he held posts at the Treasury. He also worked for Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong and later joined Ofcom where he became a member of the Board. He joined the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as Director General in 2009.

Department for Transport

Rutnam became Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport in April 2012. As of 2015, Rutnam was paid a salary of between £170,000 and £174,999, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.

While he was there he was Disability Champion for the Civil Service and oversaw a £61 billion improvement of Network Rail, some of which the Transport Secretary said needed to be 'reset' due to various factors including cost over-runs.

Home Office

On 27 February 2017, it was announced that Rutnam would replace Mark Sedwill as Permanent Secretary at the Home Office. Rutnam took up the post in April 2017.

Rutnam was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 2018 New Year Honours for public service.

On 30 April 2018 Amber Rudd resigned as Home Secretarybecause she had been unaware that there were targets for removals and had claimed there were not. Sir Philip was accused of presiding over this culture where "completely misleading emails" were sent by civil servants in the Home Office to Ms Rudd on this matter.

In February 2020, the Home Secretary Priti Patel faced allegations that she had demanded the removal of Rutnam after he raised concerns about her behaviour. Allies of Patel rejected claims of any bullying and a Home Office spokesman said: "We have not received any formal complaints and we take the welfare of our staff extremely seriously."

On 29 February 2020 Rutnam announced his resignation, stating publicly he would sue the government for constructive and unfair dismissal in a court, and that he did not believe assertions that Patel was uninvolved in the alleged campaign against him. He was replaced the same day by Shona Dunn, as acting permanent secretary. His employment tribunal claim for unfair dismissal was lodged on 20 April, his trade union, the FDA, having instructed Gavin Mansfield to advise him.