John Swift KC is an English barrister[1] and a leading authority on competition law.
The most controversial part of the privatisation was the June 1996 flotation on the London stock exchange of Railtrack, the owner and operator of the national railway infrastructure network.
Swift's role and behaviour were critical to the successful privatisation of Railtrack and the rest of the industry.
Upon the change of British government on 2 May 1997, Swift's chances of being reappointed as Rail Regulator diminished, and when Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott MP announced at the September 1998 Labour Party conference that he intended to carry out a 'spring clean of the regulators', Swift knew his days were numbered.
In April 2014, Ofgem announced Swift's appointment as the chairman of its new Enforcement Decision Panel.