Toby Jones

Background

About Toby Jones

I specialise in building innovative, mission-led solutions to solve some of the toughest challenges in public safety, security, and resilience. After a career as a technologist, design authority, systems engineer and strategist delivering major digital transformations in law enforcement and national security, I was appointed a Senior Civil Servant and seconded to the UK Home Office. There, I helped shape national policy and legislation, modernise the UK’s investigative capabilities, and led multi-disciplinary teams across complex, large-scale technology programmes. I went on to found and lead the UK's Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE), a £250m+ Home Office-backed initiative that delivered over 500 rapid innovation commissions. ACE successfully brought together government, industry, academia, and non-profits to tackle critical national security, law enforcement, and public safety challenges — supporting some of the UK's most urgent missions. ACE’s work is behind many powerful operational outcomes: strengthening offender risk management after terrorist attacks; pioneering health forecasting through wastewater-based epidemiology during the COVID pandemic; protecting children from sexual exploitation and abuse; disrupting and prosecuting criminal gangs exploiting vulnerable individuals; securing cross-sector commitment to child online verification as part of the UK’s Online Harms policy; and enhancing maritime situational awareness and coordination to combat border risks and respond to migrant crossings. ACE has been credited with removing years from mission-critical delivery timelines, and succeeding where conventional national programmes have failed. Our impact was recognised nationally and internationally — winning the Civil Service Award for Innovation, the Institute for Collaborative Working Innovation Award, and being highlighted by the OECD as the leading global exemplar of public administration transformation in its Global Trends in Government Innovation report. In 2024, I was awarded the techUK President’s Award for the Economy, one of the UK's most prestigious technology leadership honours. This recognised my leadership in opening public sector innovation to SMEs, delivering significant economic impact, and ensuring the UK’s critical national capabilities stay ahead — a peer-judged award highly regarded across the technology and public service community. Today, through TJC, I continue to help public sector organisations deliver high-impact outcomes at pace by combining strategic insight, agile delivery, and world-class collaboration.