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Roger Hargreaves

Roger Hargreaves

Director, COBR Directorate
United Kingdom

Roger joined NSS in October 2020, initially heading up the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, then the COBR Unit (2022-2025) and is now Director of the COBR Directorate. Prior to joining NSS, Roger has had a long and varied civil service career across a wide range of different roles. He spent the first decade of his career at the heart of government, firstly at HM Treasury and then the Cabinet Office where he led the redesign of the UK’s civil contingencies structures. That was followed by a series of operational and delivery roles ranging from a major emergency services reform programme through to getting planning permission for HS2. Roger also spent a year in industry working for one of the world’s largest IT companies as director of public sector strategy. Most recently, he was Maritime Director at DfT.

Roger leads the COBR Directorate. The COBR Directorate was established in summer 2025, merging the COBR Unit, the National Situation Centre and the Resilience Directorate, with the objective to deliver world-leading crisis management capabilities and to enhance the UK’s resilience. The COBR Directorate engages in horizon scanning across the full range of national security risks, operational preparedness and risk reduction, and drives the operational response to national crisis. The Directorate works to enhance the UK’s resilience structures and its ability to prepare for, adapt to and recover from shocks and disruptions. The COBR Directorate is charged with developing a crisis management profession, and a cadre of crisis staff across Whitehall and beyond. It leads on the development of international cooperation on crisis management capability.

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