Sir Robert Andrew Burns KCMG (born 21 July 1943) is a British former diplomat in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Burns was born on 21 July 1943 and educated at Highgate School.^[1] He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, with a Master of Arts (MA).^[2]

Burns served with the Diplomatic Service between 1965 and 2003, beginning his career as an Urdu and Hindi speaker at the British High Commission in New Delhi in the 1960s.^[3] Serving in New Delhi between 1967 and 1971, the later returned to London where he served as the United Kingdom's Delegate to the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe between 1975 and 1981.^[2] He later became Head of South Asia Department between 1986 and 1988.^[3]

He held the office of Ambassador to Israel between 1992 and 1995.^[4] He was later appointed as British Consul-General to Hong Kong and Macau, serving between 1997 and 2000.^[5] He then became British High Commissioner to Canada, serving from 2000 to 2003.^[3]

In June 2005, Burns was appointed to the BBC's Board of Governors as International Governor, replacing Dame Pauline Neville-Jones.^[5]

In June 2010, he was appointed the United Kingdom's first Envoy for post-Holocaust issues.^[6] He held this post until September 2015.^[7] He was succeeded in the role by Sir Eric Pickles.^[8]

He was Chair of Council of Royal Holloway, a constituent college of the University of London.^[1] He was appointed to succeed Lady Deech as the chair of the Bar Standards Board from 1 January 2015.^[9]

Burns was also previously Chairman of the China Association between 2008 and 2014 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA).^[1]