Advisory Council

The Hansard Society Council are responsible for supporting the staff and work of the Society, in an advisory capacity and  across all programmes of work.  Members of the Council represent a wide range of political and other interests.

Richard Allan

Roshana Arasaratnam*

John Bercow MP

Dianne Bevan*

Dawn Butler MP

Rob Clements

Hilton Dawson

Mark D'Arcy

Paul Evans

Professor Ivor Gaber

Oonagh Gay

Elinor Goodman

Gavin Grant

Andy Hamflett

Professor Robert Hazell CBE

Kate Jenkins (Vice Chair)*

Andrew Lansley CBE MP (Vice Chair)

Sheena McDonald

Joyce McMillan

Floyd Millen

Austin Mitchell MP

Jan Newton OBE*

Professor the Lord Norton of Louth

Lord Puttnam of Queensgate CBE (Vice Chair)

Peter Riddell (Chair)*

Gerald Shamash*

John Sharkey (Honorary Treasurer)*

Lord Tyler of Linkinhorne CBE (Vice Chair)
 

 

Richard Allan
Richard Allan is currently Government Affairs Director for Cisco in Europe, which he joined in 2005. He is responsible for a wide range of policy and regulatory issues in the UK and Ireland as well as leading Cisco's European Government Affairs team.

Previously, Richard was an academic visitor at the Oxford Internet Institute and between 1997 and 2005 was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam.  During this time Richard specialised in information technology issues.  He was a leading spokesman on legislation including the Data Protection Act, Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and Communications Act.  He chaired the House of Commons Information Select Committee from 1997 to 2001 and he was a member of several other select committees between 2003 and 2005. Prior to entering Parliament, Richard had worked as an information technology professional designing and implementing information systems within the National Health Service. This followed several positions working as a field archaeologist in the UK, France, the Netherlands and Ecuador. He has a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology and an MSc in Information Technology. 

Richard has been a member of the Hansard Society council since 2005.

 

Roshana Arasaratnam - Assistant Honorary Treasurer
Roshana has worked within the UK and international public sector for the past 10 years. She is currently a finance, planning and performance manager at Treasury Solicitor's Department responsible for developing the budget, business plan and delivering accountability reviews. Previous to this she shaped The Westminster Standard which contributed to the service transformation of Westminster City Council. She was formerly Head of Quality, Performance and Research at London Borough of Lambeth.

Roshana worked for PwC for six years. Her clients have included Department for Work and Pensions, HM Treasury, Cabinet Office, Office of National Statistics, London Borough of Bexley, Transport for London, National Audit Office, The Housing Finance Corporation and Notting Hill Housing Authority. She has been a Teaching Fellow at Kennedy School for classes in Financial Management and Budget Reform and research assistant at the Hauser Centre for Non-profit organisations. In addition, she has worked at OECD as an economics research fellow on gender equality and a strategic planning consultant to an NGO in Sri Lanka. She started her career as an economist at HM Treasury working on welfare to work issues.

Roshana has been a member of the Hansard Society council since 2006 and is the Assistant Honorary Treasurer.

 

John Bercow MP
John Bercow has been MP for Buckingham since 1997 and is currently a member of the select committee on international development. He has previously been Conservative Opposition Spokesman for Education and Employment, Work and Pensions, and Home Affairs. He has also held the positions of Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. In 2005 he was The House Magazine's ‘Backbencher of the Year'.

Before he became an MP, John Bercow was a Director of the public affairs company Rowland Sallingbury Casey, then a subsidiary of Saatchi and Saatchi. He was also special adviser to senior ministers in John Major's government and has written numerous publications on political issues including the European Union, Scotland, democracy and international development.

John has been a member of the Hansard Society council since 2007.

 

Dianne Bevan
Dianne Bevan has been Chief Operating Officer for the National Assembly for Wales since 2007 and is responsible for strategic planning and risk management, finance, Human Resources, and external communications. She is currently a member of the executive committee of the Wales Public Law and Human Rights Association, a member of both the Study of Parliament Group and the Society of Clerks at the Table, and an honorary member of Solicitors in Local Government. She has significant expertise in public law and the good governance of public sector bodies.

Dianne was a Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly for Wales from 2003 to 2007 and previously was a Corporate Director and Monitoring Officer with Cardiff Council. She has worked as a lawyer and senior manager from 1981 for a number of councils including Surrey, West Sussex, South Glamorgan and West Glamorgan County. She was also Trustee and Chair of the Local Government Legal Trust Fund until 2002 and co-founder and branch chair of the Law Society Local Government Group South and Mid Wales Branch.

Dianne has been a member of the Hansard Society council since 2005.  

Dawn Butler MP
Dawn Butler has been the Labour MP for Brent South since 2005 and was PPS to Jane Kennedy as Minister of State for the Department of Health until 2006. Dawn is currently a member of the Modernisation of the House of Commons and Children, Schools and Families Select Committees. She is also a Patron for the Black Women's Mental Health Project, Mathematics (Muslim organisation) and West Indian Self Effort.

Before entering Parliament she worked in the area of equality and recruitment for the Job Centre, GMB and Public and Commercial Services Union. She has also been involved with a number of organisations including: Race Equality In Newham, Patient and Public Involvement in Health, and the Greater London Authority London Black Women’s Council.

Dawn joined the Hansard Society council in 2008.  

Rob Clements
Rob Clements is currently Director of Research at the House of Commons Library. He is responsible for the strategic direction of the House of Commons Library's research service, ensuring effective coordination within the Library and with other departments of the House, as well representing the library in its relations with overseas parliaments. He is a member of the Executive Committee for the European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation and a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, whose council he served on between 1997 and 2002 and was their Vice President from 1998 to 1999.

From 2000 to 2005, Rob chaired the House of Commons Group on Information for the Public, an interdepartmental group of officials responsible for developing the House's strategic approach to issues of public information and access. He became the Library's Director of Parliamentary and Reference Services in 1997 after having worked in the House of Commons Library since 1976, first as a statistician and then as Head of Statistics. He has written numerous research papers for the House of Commons over the course of his career, as well as writing a monthly column for the Royal Statistical Society News, and contributing to books about parliamentary process, economics and the history of the House of Commons.

Rob has been a member of the Hansard Society council since 2002.

 

Hilton Dawson
Hilton Dawson is Chief Executive of Shaftesbury Young People, a charity that provides disadvantaged children and young people with residential care, educational support and adventure activities, a role he has been in since 2005. He is Chair of the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners, a professional adviser to A National Voice, the Patron of AFRUCA (Africans Unite Against Child Abuse) and an honorary fellow of Unicef.

Hilton was elected as MP for Lancaster & Wyre in 1997 and he stepped down in 2005 to continue his work promoting children's issues. During his time in Parliament, Hilton founded the All Party Group for Children in Care and chaired groups on Sudan and Angola visiting both countries and working with diaspora groups. He was voted Parliamentary Children's Champion in 2004 for consistently engaging young people in the parliamentary process as well as participating in a large number of bills and inquiries relating to children. Previously, he served as a Lancaster city councillor for 10 years including a period as deputy leader. Before this he was a social worker in child care, youth justice and a manager of residential care, fostering and adoption, day care and family centres and services for children with disabilities. He has a degree in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Warwick, a social work qualification from the University of Lancaster and a Diploma in Management Studies from the University of Central Lancashire. He is also a registered social worker with the General Social Care Council.

Hilton has been a member of the Hansard Society council since 2005.

 

Mark D'Arcy

Mark D’Arcy is currently a Radio 4 journalist, working on Today in Parliament and Yesterday in Parliament. He worked as a producer and reporter on The Westminster Hour for Radio 4 before moving to his present position.

Mark has written for the Leicester Mercury and spent a number of years as a local government correspondent for the BBC. He has also authored two books: Nightmare: the race to become London’s Mayor, and Abuse of Trust, Frank Beck and the Leicestershire child abuse. In his early career Mark worked on local London papers and the now retired current affairs magazine Weekend World.

Mark joined the Hansard Society council in 2008.

 

Paul Evans
Paul Evans is the Principal Clerk for Select Committees in House of Commons. He is also Vice-Chair of the Study of Parliament Group, which he has been a member of since 1986, and a regular member of steering groups for research projects within the Constitution Unit, Kings College London.

He has been a Clerk in the House of Commons since 1981 and previous to this was a Junior Research Fellow at St Edmund's House in the University of Cambridge. Paul is an expert in parliamentary procedure and has contributed to a number of publications about Parliament including; The Future of Parliament: Issues for a new century and Dod's Handbook of House of Commons Procedure (6th Edition) and was part of the Project Advisory Group for the Hansard Society's Law in the Making report.

Paul has been a Hansard Society council member since 2001.

 

Professor Ivor Gaber

Ivor Gaber is currently Research Professor in Media and Politics at Bedfordshire University, having previously taught at Goldsmiths College, University of London and London School of Economics. He has been called as an expert witness for the House of Commons Public Administration and the House of Commons Modernisation Select Committees.

Ivor has previously worked as a reporter, presenter and producer for the BBC, Channel 4 and ITN and has also written for The Guardian, The New Statesmen and The Times Higher Education Supplement. He has published a number of journal articles and books including: Culture Wars: The Media and the British Left, and Mis/informing the public: the problem of Political Communications in a mass media democracy. He is an Editorial Board Member of British Journalism Review and a member of the UK National Council of UNESCO.

Ivor joined the Hansard Society council in 2008.

 

Oonagh Gay
Oonagh Gay is Head of the Parliament and Constitution Centre (PCC) in the House of Commons Library. She has worked in the library since 1983 as a researcher specialising in several aspects of parliamentary reform, parliamentary standards, electoral law, public administration and devolution, before becoming Head of the PCC in 2004. Oonagh has published a variety of research during her time at the House of Commons Library including chapters in Has Devolution Made a Difference?: The State of the Nations 2004 (Edited by Alan Trench) and Managing Parliaments in the 21st Century European Group of Public Administration (EGPA) Yearbook 2001 (edited by Peter Falconer, Colin Smith, C William and R Webster). She co-edited her most recent publication, Conduct Unbecoming: The Regulation of Parliamentary Behaviour, with Patricia Leopold. She is also an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit, University College London, a member of the Study of Parliament Group and the Association of Electoral Administrators.

Oonagh was seconded to the Constitution Unit between 2002 and 2003 where she published a wide range of research papers including; The Regulation of Parliamentary Standards: A Comparative Perspective, Parliamentary Audit: The Audit Committee in Comparative Perspective (with Barry Winetrobe) and Officers of Parliament: Proposals for Reform (with Barry Winetrobe). Before joining the House of Commons Library, she was Overseas Volunteers Director with Community Services Volunteers and previous to this she studied History at Oxford University.

Oonagh has been a member of the Hansard Society council since 2001.

 

Elinor Goodman
Elinor Goodman is a freelance broadcaster and journalist and covers a range of topics including politics, rural issues and travel. She is a board member for the Commission for Rural Communities which represents the interests of the countryside to Government, a trustee of the Thomson Foundation which supports journalists in the developing world and a parish councillor in Wiltshire.

In 2006 she chaired the independent Affordable Rural Housing Commission and was formerly a trustee of the Wiltshire Community Foundation and the Rowntree Reform Trust. She was Political Editor of the Channel Four News from 1983 until 2005, also working on BBC Radio 4's, A Week in Westminster. 

Elinor has served on the Hansard Society council since 2001.

 

Gavin Grant
Gavin Grant is currently European Chairman for Public Affairs at Burson-Marsteller. He deals with multi-national companies, trade associations, international issue groups and All Party Parliamentary groups on issues ranging from media relations and crisis management to coalition building.

Previously Gavin worked for The Body Shop and is a former Director of Campaigns and Relations at the Royal Society. He has worked for the Liberal Democrat Party, standing for Parliament in 1983 and 1987. He was involved in the Liberal Democrat Leader’s national election tour in 1992 and 1997 and was instrumental as a member of the Liberal Democrats European Election Strategy team.

Gavin joined the Hansard Society council in 2008.

 

Andy Hamflett

Andy Hamflett has been working in the youth participation and empowerment field for a decade, both in the voluntary and statutory sectors. He was appointed the Chief Executive of the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) in May 2005.

Before UKYP, Andy worked at Lambeth Youth Council, where he supported young people to establish education projects on teenage pregnancy, substance misuse and work with the police around stop and search. Before that, he worked as a journalist on sports, child care and business-to-business titles, then held a number of editorial and development roles with Children’s Express (now Headliners), the charity promoting learning through journalism.

Andy joined the Hansard Society council in 2008.

 

Professor Robert Hazell CBE
Professor Robert Hazell is currently Professor of Government and the Constitution at University College London and Director of the Constitution Unit within the School of Public Policy. He founded the Constitution Unit in 1995 as an independent think tank specialising in constitutional reform. The Unit has published detailed reports on every aspect of the government's constitutional reform programme, including devolution, Lords reform, parliamentary reform, the Human Rights Act, freedom of information, and electoral reform.  Robert was Vice Chairman of the Hansard Society Commission on the Scrutiny Role of Parliament in 2001.

Before joining University College London, he was Director of the Nuffield Foundation, a grant giving charitable trust, between 1989 and 2005. Previous to this he worked at the Home Office as a civil servant after starting his career as a barrister in 1973.

Robert has been a member of the Hansard Society council since 1997.

 

Kate Jenkins - Vice Chair
Kate Jenkins is a Visiting Professor in the Government Department at the London School of Economics and a governor of the School. She is Chairman of KJA Ltd and a Director of Carrenza Ltd. She is also a Vice Chair of the Trustees of St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School Trust and Honorary Adviser to the Spitalfields Festival.

Kate has been a senior UK civil servant and an expert adviser on government reform at cabinet level to a wide range of governments including the UK Government and the Federal Governments of Brazil and Mexico. She has published a number of books, articles and reports on government including Governance and Nationbuilding: the failure of international intervention (co-authored) and Improving Management in Government.

Kate has been a member of the Hansard Society council since 2001 and became a Vice-Chair in 2004.

 

Andrew Lansley CBE MP - Vice Chair
Andrew Lansley has been MP for South Cambridgeshire since 1997 and is currently the Shadow Secretary of State for Health. Between 1999 and 2001 he was Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Policy Renewal, as well as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. From 1998 to 1999 he was Vice Chair of the Conservative Party.  Andrew previously served as a member of the health select committee and the trade and industry select committee in the House of Commons. He is the Chair of the all party parliamentary group on stroke.

Before entering Parliament as an MP, Andrew was Director of the Conservative Research Department from 1990 to 1995 and Deputy Director-General of the British Chambers of Commerce previous to this.  He was a civil servant from 1979 to 1987, including between 1984 to 1985 when has was Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry; and from 1985 to 1987 he was Principal Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He has published a number of books and articles about Conservative Party policy over the last 20 years.

Andrew has served on the Hansard Society council since 2003 and became a Vice-Chair in 2007.

 

Sheena McDonald
Sheena Mc Donald currently presents Talking Politics on BBC Radio 4 and Teachers TV News, and works as a freelance current affairs and arts journalist.

She is an experienced journalist having presented a number of radio and TV programmes including; STV News, The World at One, Power and the People, The World This Week, On the Record, International Question Time and Channel 4 News. In 1995 she received the inaugural ‘Woman in Film and Television’ Award.

Sheena joined the Hansard Society council in 2008

 

Joyce McMillan
Joyce McMillan currently writes a commentary column on political and social issues for the Scotsman newspaper and she is also their chief theatre critic. She broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio Scotland and Radio Four and became a Visiting Professor of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh in 2006.

Joyce has been a political and arts columnist, theatre critic and broadcaster for 20 years, working for various Scottish and London newspapers. She has also been involved in Scottish and European campaigns for democracy and human rights and was a member from 1998 to 1999 of the British government's Consultative Steering Group on procedures for the new Scottish Parliament. She was convener of the Scottish Civic Forum between 2003 and 2006 and received an honorary degree of D.Litt. from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh in 2000.

Joyce has served on the Hansard Society Council since 2006, has been a member of the Hansard Society Scotland Working Group since 2002 and became its Chair in 2005.

 

Floyd Millen
Floyd Millen is Head of Policy and Communications at the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion. Floyd also sits on the Strategic Research Board of the Economic and Social Research Council and is a member of the Independent Monitoring Board for Britain’s highest security prison – Belmarsh. Floyd Studied Politics at Hull University and he is currently completing his PhD in political science at Loughborough University. For the past two years Floyd has been shadowing the former Home Secretary Rt Hon Charles Clarke MP as part of an Operation Black Vote scheme.

Floyd was previously Chief Executive of the social policy think tank, Race on the Agenda, between 2001 and 2004 and before this was Policy adviser on the implementation of Home Office Guidelines on custody visiting for the Metropolitan Police Authority. From 2002 to 2006 he was a council member for SENSE, he worked for South London Training and Enterprise Council from 1996 to 1998 and also the Black Training and Enterprise Group where he was a Programme Director for a DWP employment initiative. He has published a number of articles and reports on police Authorities, employment relations and citizenship and is Research Associate for the Midlands Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Floyd has been a Hansard Society council member since 2003.

 

Austin Mitchell MP
Austin Mitchell has been MP for Grimsby since 1977 and subsequently for Great Grimsby since 1983. He is currently Chair of the Labour economic policy group, Vice Chair of the Labour campaign for electoral reform and the Labour euro-safeguards campaign, as well as a member of the public accounts committee in the House of Commons. In the past he has been Personal Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Prices and Consumer Protection, an Opposition Whip and Opposition Spokesperson for Trade and Industry. He also sat on the agriculture committee between 1997 and 2001 and the environment, food and rural affairs committee from 2001 to 2005.

Before entering Parliament, Austin lectured at universities in New Zealand as well as at Nuffield College, Oxford and has published numerous books and articles about politics over the last 40 years. He has also worked for the BBC, Sky and Yorkshire Television and is Associate Editor of The House Magazine.

Austin has served on the Hansard Society council since 1994.

 

Jan Newton OBE 

 

Professor the Lord Norton of Louth
Lord Norton is Professor of Government at the University of Hull's Department of Politics and International Studies and Director of Studies for the Hansard Society Scholars programme. He was raised to the peerage in 1998 and sits on the Lords select committee of the European Union, chairs the Conservative Academic Group and is part of the Executive Committee of the Conservative History Group. He is Director of the Centre of Legislative Studies, a trustee of the History of Parliament Group and President of the Politics Association.

Lord Norton was Chair of the Lords select committee on the constitution from 2001 to 2004 and the Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Hull from 2002 to 2007. He also chaired the Conservative Party's Commission to Strengthen Parliament in 2000 and has been involved with numerous political organisations such as the Study of Parliament Group, the Political Studies Association and the Economic and Social Research Council. Lord Norton has published an abundance of books, articles and papers throughout his career and is an expert on British politics, constitutional affairs, legislatures and the Conservative Party.

Lord Norton has been a member of the Hansard Society council since 1997 and became Director of Studies in 2002.

 

Lord Puttnam of Queensgate CBE - Vice Chair
Lord Puttnam is currently Chair of the draft communications bill committee in the Houses of Parliament. He was raised to the peerage in 1997 and is Deputy Chairman of Channel Four, President of UNICEF UK, Chairman of Futurelab, an organisation using new technologies to support innovative learning, and Profero, a digital marketing agency, alongside many other organisations.  He was Chancellor of the University of Sunderland from 1997 to 2007 and is now Chancellor of the Open University. Lord Puttnam was awarded a CBE in 1982 and received a knighthood in 1995.

Before becoming a peer, Lord Puttnam worked as an independent film producer and his films include The Mission, The Killing Fields, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone, and The Memphis Belle. He was Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Pictures from 1986 to 1988 and the first non-American to run a Hollywood studio.  He founded the National Teaching Awards in 1988 and served as the first Chair of the General Teaching Council for England between 2000 and 2002. He was also Vice President and Chair of Trustees at BAFTA from 1994 to 2004, and was awarded a BAFTA Fellowship in 2006. He has been a visiting Professor at both the London School of Economics and Bristol University and has published widely on the media, politics and the film industry. He also chaired the Hansard Society's Commission on the Communication of Parliamentary Democracy in 2005.

Lord Puttnam has been a Hansard Society council member since 2007and he became a Vice-Chair in the same year.

 

Peter Riddell - Chair
Peter Riddell has worked for The Times since 1991 and is currently its Assistant Editor and Chief Political Commentator. He writes mainly, but not exclusively, about British politics, Parliament and political parties. He is also an Honorary Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and the Political Studies Association.

Prior to joining The Times, he was US Editor and Washington Bureau Chief at The Financial Times between 1989 and 1991. He regularly appears on radio programmes such as The Week in Westminster and Talking Politics. Peter has written a number of books including; The Thatcher Decade, Hug Them Close: Blair, Clinton, Bush and the ‘Special Relationship' and The Unfulfilled Prime Minister: Tony Blair's Quest for a Legacy. His book Hug Them Close won the Channel Four Political Book of the Year award in 2004.

Peter has been a Hansard Society council member since 1996 and was elected Chair in 2007.

 

Gerald Shamash
 

John Sharkey - Honorary Treasurer
John Sharkey is currently the Chairman and owner of Sharkey Associates Ltd, a management consultancy chiefly engaged in communications and policy issues for multinational organisations. Previously, he was the co-Chairman, founder and proprietor of Bainsfair Sharkey Trott, who ran the 1997 general election advertising campaign for the Liberal Democrats.

Previously, John held many high profile positions, in particular he was Managing Director of Saatchi and Saatchi UK, with responsibility for running Mrs Thatcher's 1987 election advertising campaign and, more recently, assisting the Turkish Government in their preparations for accession into the EU. He was also Deputy Chairman of Saatchi International, Chairman of BDDP Holdings Ltd, Chief Operating Officer at Blue Arrow Plc and Chairman of Highland Partners Europe.

John has been a member of the Hansard Society council since 2004 and became the Honorary Treasurer in 2007.

 

Lord Tyler of Linkinhorne CBE - Vice Chair

Lord Tyler has been the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Constitutional Affairs in the House of Lords since 2006. He was raised to the peerage in 2005 after serving in the House of Commons for 13 years. From 1992-2005 he was MP for North Cornwall and was Spokesperson for: Agriculture, Tourism, Transport and Rural Affairs; Food; and Constitutional Reform, as well as Chief Whip and Shadow Leader of the House during this time. He also served as a member of the Select Committee on the Modernisation of the House of Commons and the Joint Committee on House of Lords Reform.With Robin Cook MP and Ken Clarke MP he produced a draft Bill for House of Lords reform in 2005 on which many of the current proposals are based.

 He became a member of the Hansard Society Council in 2008 and is a Vice Chair.
 

 * denotes members of the Executive Committee (Board of Trustees)