The son of George Ewart Evans and Florence Ellen Knappett, he was educated at Friends' School, Saffron Walden, Essex, before reading Economics at the London School of Economics, graduating B.Sc.Econ.

Evans also served as a governor of the British Film Institute and in 1999 was appointed the first chairman of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

[3] Appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1998 Birthday Honours,[4] Evans was created a Life Peer on 11 May 2000 as Baron Evans of Temple Guiting, of Temple Guiting in the County of Gloucestershire.

[5] In the House of Lords, he served as a Government Whip from 2002 to 2007, and a Spokesman for the Department for Constitutional Affairs from 2003.

Also a Spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Treasury, Lord Evans left the Government in October 2007 to join Swiss Bank EFG International.