Tom Winsor

Sir Thomas Philip Winsor (born 7 December 1957) is a British arbitrator and mediator, lawyer, consultant and economic regulatory professional.

Winsor was born on 7 December 1957 in Broughty Ferry, Dundee to Thomas V M Winsor and Phyllis Bonsor.

He was educated at Grove Academy state comprehensive school in Broughty Ferry.

In 1976, he went to the University of Edinburgh to study law.

Born in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, Winsor practised law in various capacities from 1979 to 1999 and between 2004 and 2012.

He maintains his licence to practise law.

After graduation in 1979, he served his two-year Scots legal apprenticeship with Dundee law firm Thorntons & Dickies.

He practised for a year after that doing mainly litigation in Dundee Sheriff Court.

In 1982 he enrolled as a postgraduate student at the Centre for Petroleum and Mineral Law Studies of the University of Dundee under Professor T C Daintith.

He received a Diploma in Petroleum Law in 1983.

The leading Edinburgh law firm Dundas & Wilson employed him as a solicitor from 1983 until 1984.

He then moved to London and joined City law firm Norton Rose, specialising in energy law and project finance.

He became a Writer to the Signet (WS) in 1984.

In 1991 he left Norton Rose to become a partner in City law firm Denton Hall.

He worked on the design and implementation of the regulatory regime for the privatisation of the electricity industry in Northern Ireland.

After the flotation of Northern Ireland Electricity on the London stock exchange in 1993, Winsor was seconded to the Government Legal Service.

He served as chief legal adviser and general counsel to the first Rail Regulator, John Swift QC.

The Rail Regulator was the statutory officer established by the Railways Act 1993 for the economic regulation of the British railway industry, which was about to be privatised.

Winsor's secondment lasted two years and he returned to Denton Hall in August 1995.

Prescott had been fiercely opposed to the privatisation in 1996 and was one of the 'old Labour' stalwarts who wanted to renationalise the industry outright.

Despite having said in opposition that its policy was a 'publicly owned, publicly accountable railway', New Labour would not promise renationalisation, even if it could have afforded it.

On his appointment after the British general election in 1997, Prescott had declared he was going to take a far tougher line with the privatised railway industry.

In its manifesto for the 1997 election, it had committed itself to a policy of increased accountability of the privatised companies to the public interest through tougher and more effective regulation.

This was seen as an imaginative policy.

If it was properly implemented, it could achieve virtually all the government's objectives for a better performing, more efficient railway without the expense or controversy of renationalising the assets.

At the Labour Party conference in September 1998, Prescott declared that he was going to carry out a 'spring clean of the regulators'.

Many commentators realised this meant the appointment of a tougher, more interventionist replacement for Swift.

Between 5 July 1999 and 4 July 2004, he served as the Rail Regulator and International Rail Regulator for Great Britain.

He oversaw the collapse of Railtrack, the infrastructure manager for the British rail network and the creation and refinancing of the successor network infrastructure manager, Network Rail.

In July 1999, John Prescott MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and Deputy Prime Minister, appointed Winsor as Chris Bolt's successor as Rail Regulator and International Rail Regulator.

In October 2010, UK Home Secretary Theresa May MP appointed him to carry out a controversial, wide-ranging review of the remuneration and conditions of service of police officers and staff in England and Wales, the first for over 30 years.

Between 1 October 2012 and 31 March 2022, he served as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary.

Following the final publication of the review in March 2012, the Home Secretary nominated him to serve as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary in June 2012, the first to be appointed from outside the police service.

Following confirmation hearings, he began his role in October 2012.

He left office on 31 March 2022, on the expiry of his last term of office.

In the 2015 New Years Honours List, it was announced Winsor was to be knighted; he received his knighthood from HM The Queen on 19 March 2015, at Buckingham Palace.

In July 2017, he was additionally appointed as the first Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services, overseeing an expanded Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services.

His policing and fire appointments ran together, and expired on the same day.

From 4 April 2022, he established himself as an arbitrator and mediator, both domestic (UK) and international.

He is a member of the London-based Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.