[citation needed] Harris went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read Natural Sciences for two years before switching to Economics.

[citation needed] After Cambridge, Harris joined the Economics Division of the Bank of England, where he specialised in public sector finance.

He also spent a period as Assistant to Christopher Dow, the eminent applied economist, who was then Executive Director of the Bank.

He was Deputy Chair of the National Fuel Policy Forum and a member of the Council of Management of Neighbourhood Energy Action.

At various times, these included Unisys, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Airwave Solutions, Sunrise Radio, the National Grid and Humana Europe.

[citation needed] He acts as UK Coordinator for the Electric Infrastructure Security Council[7] that brings together the energy industry, lifeline infrastructure providers, central and local government, the voluntary sector and academia to help mitigate the risks of and consequences of a major wide-area and long-duration failure of electricity supplies.

He also had to handle the restoration of Alexandra Palace and the debts incurred on it since Haringey had taken over its ownership from the Greater London Council in 1980.

Harris was also active in the Association of Metropolitan Authorities, whose Social Services Committee he chaired, leading the negotiations with central government on the introduction of Care in the Community and the Children Act.

[citation needed] Harris also chaired the Independent Advisory Group on Deaths in Custody that reports to the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office and the Department of Health from 2009 to 2015.

[12] In Parliament, he sits on the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy and is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Policing.