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 McDonaldSheena 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)