Advisory Council

Lord Allan

Roshana Arasaratnam*

Laurence Bard

Dianne Bevan*

Edward Bickham*

Mark D'Arcy

Paul Evans

Professor Ivor Gaber

Oonagh Gay

Gavin Grant

Rt Hon Lord Grocott (Chair)*

Professor Robert Hazell CBE

Rt Hon Baroness Jay of Paddington

Peter Kellner

Amelia Knott

Peter Knowles*

Andrew Lansley MP

Sheena McDonald*

Joyce McMillan

Dr. Floyd Millen

Austin Mitchell MP

Professor Lord Norton

Lord Puttnam CBE (Vice Chair)

Gerald Shamash*

Matthew Seward

Lord Sharkey (Assistant Honorary Treasurer)*

 

Bill Thomson

Graeme Trayner*

Lord Tyler CBE (Vice Chair)

Aileen Walker  

 

 * Denotes members of the Executive Committee (Board of Trustees).

 

Lord Allan

Richard Allan is currently Facebook's European Director of Public Policy. He was formerly 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 - Honorary Treasurer

Roshana has worked within the UK and international public sector for over 10 years.  She is currently Head of Finance at Hackney Council, responsible for budget setting and budget monitoring and procurement. Her previous public sector roles have been financial planning and performance at the Treasury Solicitor's Department; delivering customer services strategy at Westminster Council; and Head of Quality, Performance and Research at the London Borough of Lambeth. Before returning to the public sector she worked at Pricewaterhouse Coopers working across local government and central government, both as an auditor and as an economist.  She has been a teaching fellow for financial management and budget reform, and a research assistant at the Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She started her career as an economist at HM Treasury.

Laurence Bard

Laurence Bard qualified as both a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Tax Adviser and has worked in the tax profession for many years, including as a Partner with one the "Big Four" accountancy firms for over 15 years.  In this capacity Laurence advised many groups of public and private, UK and international companies and their owners on their tax affairs.  Following four years as an independent, Laurance joined Shaws in 2005 to head its corporate tax practice -  a role he continues to develop within BTG Tax following the acquisition of Shaws by Begbies Traynor group in January 2008.  Laurence also represent taxpayers on the joint HMRC Consultative Committee.

 

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.  

Edward Bickham

Edward Bickham was until recently Executive Vice President, External Affairs for global mining group, Anglo American plc, a post he had held since 2000. This involved responsibility for communication; public policy, government relations and political risk; social development in mining communities; and corporate ethics, including anti-corruption and human rights.

Edward Bickham was Managing Director, Public and Corporate Affairs (and later Deputy Chairman and Director of Strategy), Hill and Knowlton UK from 1993 until 2000. Amongst the campaigns that he managed on behalf of clients were programmes to secure the privatisation of Nuclear Electric as British Energy, to reform Channel 4’s funding mechanism, to secure the allocation of the Channel 5 franchise and to preserve the status of historic urban markets. Between January 1991 and July 1993 he served as Special Adviser to the Foreign Secretary (Rt Hon Douglas Hurd) during the first Gulf War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the start of the transition to democracy in South Africa and the negotiation of the Maastricht Treaty.

Between 1988 and the end of 1990, Edward was Corporate Communications Director for British Satellite Broadcasting, the United Kingdom’s official satellite broadcasting operator, which subsequently merged to become 50% of British Sky Broadcasting. This role followed a two and a half year period as Special Adviser to the Home Secretary (Rt Hon Douglas Hurd), where he was closely involved in criminal justice policy, inner city regeneration, race relations and immigration, broadcasting and the attempted reform of shop opening hours. Between 1983 and 1985 he served Jim Prior and, subsequently, Douglas Hurd, in their roles as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Edward joined the Hansard Society Council in 2010. 

 

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 of the Table Office in the 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 Professor of Political Journalism at City University London and Research Professor in Media and Politics at Bedfordshire University, having previously taught at Goldsmiths College, University of London (where he is now Emeritus Professor of Broadcast Journalism). He is an Independent Editorial Advisor to the BBC and represents the UK at UNESCO's International Programme for Development Communication. He is currently a member of a Government investigation into child protection.

During the 2010 election he was employed as exprty commentator on the BBC World Service's election coverage. He is a frequent contributor to radio and television programmes in the Uk and abroad. Previously he worked as a reporter,  producer and programme editor for BBC Radio and TV, Channel 4 ITN and Slky News. He has also written for The Guardian, The NewStatesmen, Tribune and The Times Higher Education Supplement.

He has published a number of journal articles and books including:

Westminster Tales: the 21st century crisis in political journalism and Culture Wars: The Media and the British Left. He is an Editorial Board Member of the 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.

 

Gavin Grant

Gavin Grant is Chief Executive of the RSPCA.

Previously Gavin worked for Burson-Marsteller and 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.

Professor Robert Hazell CBE

Professor Robert Hazell is currently Professor of British Politics & 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.

 

Rt Hon Baroness Jay of Paddington

After graduating from Oxford University in Politics, Philosophy and Economics she joined the BBC and began a 20 year career in broadcasting. During this period she was a member of successive NHS health authorities in London and involved in local committees on health research and development.

In 1988 she was appointed as the first director of the National Aids Trust. Four years later she was appointed as a ‘working peer’ to the House of Lords by the Labour Party and held Opposition front bench posts during the 1990s. At the same time she joined the Board of the London Broadcasting Company, and later of Carlton Television and Scottish Power. She was also on the Advisory Board of the Meteorological Office and chaired the Shopping Hours Reform Council which successfully lobbied to change the law on Sunday trading in 1994.

Following the Labour election victory in 1997 Margaret Jay became a Minister of State in the Department of Health, and the following year was appointed Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Privy Seal and Minister for Women. In 2001 she voluntarily stepped down from the Cabinet posts but remains active as a “back bench” Privy Counsellor in the House of Lords. Since 2001 she has extended her business interests as a non executive director of British Telecom and The Independent News and Media Company. She is now the senior independent director of INM. She has also acted as a political consultant and as chair of the independent research organisation, The Overseas Development Institute.

In 2007 she served as co chair of the Iraq Commission set up by the Foreign Policy Centre and Channel 4 Television to review the UK’s policy in Iraq.

In 2008 she served as a member of the Cross Party Commission on links between Local Government and the National Health Service.

Since 2011 Baroness Jay has been Chair of the Constitution Committee, House of Lords.

Peter Kellner

Peter Kellner has been President of the pioneering online survey research company, YouGov since April 2007, having served as Chairman from 2001 until 2007. He won the 2007 ‘Chairman of the Year’ award from the Quoted Companies Alliance; in 2011 he was given a Special Recognition award by the Political Studies Association for his work in reporting polls and elections.
He is also Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

During the past four decades he has written for a variety of newspapers, including the Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Observer, Evening Standard, New Statesman. He has also been a regular contributor to Newsnight (BBC2), A Week in Politics (Channel Four), Powerhouse Channel Four), Analysis (Radio Four) and election night results programmes on television and radio. He has written, or contributed to, a variety of books and leaflets about politics, elections and public affairs.

Peter has also been a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Policy Studies Institute, London, and served as a member of committees set up by the Economic and Social Research Council to commission research into elections and social exclusion. Before joining YouGov, Peter acted as a consultant on public opinion research to a number of organisations, including the Bank of England, Corporation of London, Foreign Office, National Westminster Bank and Trades Union Congress.

Amelia Knott

Amelia Knott is currently Corporate Responsibility Manager for Centrica plc, which she joined in 2007. She specialises in policy development, reporting and communications, with particular interests in climate change, energy security, ethics and skills. She is also responsible for managing Centrica’s website and social media strategy. Centrica is the parent company of British Gas, the UK’s largest energy retailer.

Prior to her role at Centrica, Amelia managed communications for the Industry and Parliament Trust, a Westminster-based charity that seeks to promote mutual understanding between Parliament and the worlds of business, industry and commerce. In her spare time, she co-founded a small citizenship charity to provide free teaching materials for schools. She has a degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

 

Peter Knowles

Peter Knowles is the Controller of BBC Parliament and Editor of Today & Yesterday in Parliament and the Democracy Live web portal. He's had a long and varied BBC career including roles such as Editor, BBC World newsroom and Managing Editor Television News. He has lectured on broadcasting and parliament for organisations such as the Inter Parliamentary Union, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, European Broadcasting Union and UNESCO.

Peter was born in Bolton, Lancashire. He studied English at St. Catherine's College, Oxford; an MBA at the University of Bradford and is currently taking a part time Theology degree at the University of Chester.

 

Andrew Lansley CBE MP - Vice Chair

Andrew Lansley has been MP for South Cambridgeshire since 1997 and is currently the 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 McDonald 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.

 

Dr. Floyd Millen

Dr. Floyd Millen is the founder and Director of the public affairs think tank, yesMinister. He was the former Head of Policy and Communications at the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion (CESI) and the former Chief Executive of the social policy think tank ROTA. Floyd has worked as a Contracts & FAM Manager for two Training and Enterprise Councils and was Programme Director of 'Building Futures', a DWP and Treasury funded third sector employment led initiative.

Floyd studied politics under the conservative Peer Professor the Lord Norton of Louth and in November 2009 he completed a PhD in Political Science and Criminology at Loughborough University.

In addition to the Hansard Society, Floyd sits on the Research Committee of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Floyd is mentored by the former Home Secretary Rt Hon Charles Clarke MP and is a former council member of the Deaf Blind charity SENSE 2002-2006. Floyd is also a school governor of St Michaels School in East Wickham and he writes extensively on police authorities, Welfare reform and it's impact on citizenship, representation and democracy.

 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.

 

Professor Lord Norton

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 CBE - Vice Chair

David Puttnam was raised to the peerage in 1997 and is Deputy Chairman of Channel Four, was President of UNICEF UK between 2002 and 2009, 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.

 

Rt Hon Lord Grocott

Lord Grocott obtained an MA from Manchester University after conducting research on local Government. He was appointed to the post of lecturer in 1964, and later a senior lecturer, at the Birmingham Polytechnic (now Birmingham City University). From 1972 to 1974 he was a principal lecturer at North Staffordshire Polytechnic. From 1974 to 1979 he was MP for Lichfield and Tamworth.

In 1979 he joined Central Television as presenter and producer, working on programmes such as 'Left, Right and Centre', 'Central Lobby' and 'Central Weekend'. He was re-elected for The Wrekin in 1987 and he was very shortly thereafter appointed Deputy Shadow Leader of the House to Jack Cunningham before becoming advisor to the Leader of the Opposition, Neil Kinnock and, later, a Foreign Affairs Spokesman under John Smith. He served as PPS to Tony Blair from 1994 until 2001.

He transferred to Telford in 1997 when The Wrekin was divided. He served this seat until the 2001 general election, when he stepped down from the Commons and was made a life peer under the title of Baron Grocott, of Telford, in the County of Shropshire, on 2 July 2001, quickly being promoted to a Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords. From 2002 to 2008 he was the Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords as well as Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms, the honorary post usually held by the Chief Whip.

 

Matthew Seward

Matthew Seward is Deputy Chief Executive at the National Churches Trust, a national charity which supports and promotes places of worship of historic, architectural and community value.

He has previously held a number of roles within the Labour Party including Director of Policy and Research, has served as a Special Adviser to three different Cabinet ministers, including the Leader of the House of Lords and the Home Secretary, and earlier worked for the House Magazine’s Parliamentary Information Unit. He has a degree in British Politics and Legislative Studies from Hull University, authored a research paper on the Deputy Speakers of the House of Commons published by its Centre for Legislative Studies, and is the co-founder and Vice-Chair of the Labour History Group.

 

Gerald Shamash

Gerald founded Steel & Shamash solicitors in 1981, and has acted as solicitor to the Labour Party since 1990.

Gerald is recognised as one of the leading practitioners in the country in his areas of expertise which are: Election law, Parliamentary boundary inquiries, Judicial Review, Local Government, Standards Board and Adjudication Tribunals for councillors, Parliamentary rules relating to the conduct of Members of Parliament.

He is the Labour Party's election lawyer. He acts for both the National Executive Committee and National Constitutional committee on disciplinary matters, and in giving general advice. He advises both national and local politicians on Standards in Parliament and local government.

His position as solicitor to the Labour Party, and the Society of Labour Lawyers, has closely involved Gerald with legislative reform of electoral law.

Lord Sharkey - Assistant Honorary Treasurer

John Sharkey is the Deputy Prime Minister's Strategic Communications Advisor and was Chair of the Liberal Democrat's General Election Campaign.
John has held many high profile positions, in particular he was Chairman and co-founder of the advertising agency Bainsfair Sharkey Trott, Managing Director of Saatchi and Saatchi UK, with responsibility for running Margaret Thatcher's 1987 election advertising campaign and 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.

 

Bill Thomson

Bill Thomson joined the staff of the Scottish Parliament as Head of the Chamber Office before the first elections in 1999. He has subsequently had senior management responsibility for a range of parliamentary services including clerking in the chamber and committees, the official report, research and information, education and outreach, broadcasting, media relations, and security. He is currently employed in a strategic role as an Assistant Clerk / Chief Executive and leads on several major projects.

Bill studied languages, law and business administration in Edinburgh and Amsterdam and has held a number of professional and managerial roles in the public and private sectors, including as director of charitable companies limited by guarantee. He has been a member of the Hansard Society Scotland Working Group since 2007

 

Graeme Trayner

Graeme Trayner is a Partner at Brunswick Group, where he set up and leads the communications group’s opinion research practice, Brunswick Research.

Graeme has worked with major companies, governments and charities around the world, helping them turn research findings into compelling strategies and campaigns. He has conducted extensive research exploring attitudes towards issues and policy debates, including electoral and constitutional reform, the environment and sustainability, offshoring and foreign investment, national image and corporate responsibility.

His roots lie in political campaign research, having worked closely with Labour Party pollsters Deborah Mattinson and Philip Gould. After graduating from LSE, he began his career working for the Democrat pollster Stan Greenberg in Washington, DC.

 

Lord Tyler CBE - Vice Chair

Lord Tyler was the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Constitutional Affairs in the House of Lords between 2006 and 2010. 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.