Thomas Hurd

British civil servant and national-security specialist; Director General of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), Home Office, April 2016–March 2021; previously Chief of Assessments Staff, Cabinet Office; briefly head of the Joint Biosecurity Centre (2020); son of former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd; Companion of the Bath

Thomas Robert Benedict Hurd
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Born	22 September 1964
Died
Nationality	British
Residence
Occupation	Civil servant; diplomat; national-security official
Known for	Director General, Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism / Homeland Security Group predecessor (2016–2021); Chief of Assessments Staff, Cabinet Office (2012–2014); interim head of the Joint Biosecurity Centre (2020); Middle East specialist and former senior diplomat
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Thomas Robert Benedict Hurd CB OBE (born 22 September 1964), commonly known as Tom Hurd, is a British civil servant and national-security specialist. He served as Director General of the Home Office’s Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT) from April 2016 to March 2021, succeeding Charles Farr. In that role he was the senior official responsible for the cross-government counter-terrorism and organised-crime strategies, overseeing approximately 900 staff and a budget of around £1 billion. He is the son of the former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell.

Background and early career

Hurd was educated at Eton College and at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he read Arabic and Middle Eastern studies (a contemporary of Boris Johnson). He worked briefly at Credit Suisse as an investment banker before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1992. He spent much of his diplomatic career on Middle Eastern affairs, with particular focus on Iraq and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and held senior posts in security and counter-terrorism. He received an OBE in 2006 (some sources date the award to 2011). From 2012 to 2014 he was Chief of Assessments Staff in the Cabinet Office, personally leading briefings to the Prime Minister at COBR and compiling the Prime Minister’s daily intelligence brief. He has attended the National Security Council and was a member of the Joint Intelligence Committee.

Director General, OSCT

Hurd was appointed Director General of the OSCT in January 2016 (taking up the post in April), replacing Charles Farr, who had become Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee. He was responsible for the government’s strategy, policy and legislative response to the threats of terrorism and organised crime, and for leading the counter-terrorism system across government. During his tenure he coordinated the response to the 2017 Manchester and London attacks, chaired the first COBR meeting in response to the Salisbury Novichok attack in 2018, and led elements of the domestic response. He also oversaw domestic operations of the intelligence agencies, Counter-Terrorism Policing and the National Crime Agency, and played a leading role in Five Eyes discussions on domestic security. In 2020 he was appointed Companion of the Bath for services to national security. He stepped down in March 2021, shortly before the OSCT was renamed the Homeland Security Group.

Joint Biosecurity Centre

In May 2020 Hurd was asked to set up the Joint Biosecurity Centre at pace as part of the COVID-19 response. The centre was a data-led organisation intended to combine data science and public health expertise to detect outbreaks earlier and advise government and local authorities. He led it briefly (May–June 2020) before being replaced by Dr Clare Gardiner of the National Cyber Security Centre. He had no obvious scientific background; the appointment was noted by some observers as emphasising a security framing of the pandemic response.

Later career

After leaving Crown service in March 2021 Hurd established an independent consultancy. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) advised on commissions, including work with Gallos Technologies Limited (a firm focused on defence and security sector companies). Conditions included a two-year restriction on advising on policy or operational matters for which he had had specific responsibility as Director General, or on organisations with which he had had a relationship in that role. He has also co-founded the talent-intelligence start-up Zeki Data and undertakes speaking engagements on national security, crisis management and data-driven approaches to homeland security.

Family and public profile

Hurd is the son of Douglas Hurd (Foreign Secretary 1989–1995) and the brother of the former Conservative MP and minister Nick Hurd. He has been reported as a contender for the leadership of MI6 and MI5. In 1999 his name appeared on a list of alleged MI6 officers published by the LaRouche-linked Executive Intelligence Review; the authenticity of the list has been questioned, but the appearance itself placed him on the radar of adversary services.

Death of Catherine Hurd

Catherine Hurd (also known as Sian), wife of Thomas Hurd and daughter-in-law of former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, died on 21 May 2011 after falling from the roof of the family’s four-storey townhouse on East 84th Street in Manhattan. She was 46 and the mother of five. The family was due to return to the UK two days later at the end of Hurd’s posting to the British Mission to the United Nations. New York police found her unresponsive on the pavement in the early hours (around 4:27–4:30 a.m.) and she was pronounced dead at hospital from blunt impact injuries. No suicide note was found. Initial police statements treated the death as an apparent suicide and said no criminality was suspected. Neighbours described her as a happy mother of five; some later accounts mentioned that she “terribly missed” two of her children who were being educated in England. An inquest opened in Hampshire in 2011 and reconvened in 2012. Evidence included that she had taken an overdose in 2007 after a nervous breakdown, that she was anxious and possibly depressed but not receiving treatment, that a footprint was found on the roof heading toward the ledge, and that mud was found on the ladder used to access a roof hatch. The body was found 18 feet from the building. Thomas Hurd told the inquest he woke between 3 and 4 a.m., found she was not beside him, searched the house, then discovered her in the garden and tried to resuscitate her. The Central Hampshire coroner recorded an open verdict, stating the fall was “more than likely an intentional act” but that he could not be certain it was suicide (no note) or an accident (no witness). A New York Police Department report ruled out foul play. The absence of a note, the open verdict, the timing two days before the family’s scheduled departure, and the limited public detail have been noted in contemporary reporting as leaving the precise circumstances unresolved.

See also

• Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism
• Homeland Security Group
• Charles Farr
• Chloe Squires
• Joint Biosecurity Centre
• Douglas Hurd

External links

• GOV.UK biography
• GOV.UK appointment announcement (21 January 2016)
• London Speaker Bureau Asia profile
• ACOBA advice letter (Gallos Technologies, March 2022)
• The Guardian, 12 May 2020 (Joint Biosecurity Centre)
• The Times, 8 February 2020
• DLD Conference profile