CPS Advisory Board
Baroness Usha Prashar CBE
Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission
Baroness Prashar was appointed inaugural Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission in October 2005. She is also a Governor of the Ditchley Foundation, a Trustee of Cumberland Lodge and President of the Royal Commonwealth Society, having previously served as the Society’s chairman. She is currently serving as a member of the Iraq Inquiry.
From 2000 to 2005 she was the First Civil Service Commissioner. Before that she was Chairman of the Parole Board for England and Wales (1997-2000), Director of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (1986-1991) and Director of the Runnymede Trust (1976-84). She was also a member of the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice (1991-1993) and was a member of the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct (1992-1997).
A Crossbencher in the House of Lords, she is Chair of the Sub-Committee on Lords’ Interests, a member of the Privileges Committee and a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights.
She was educated at the independent Wakefield Girls' High School. She read politics at the University of Leeds and undertook postgraduate studies in social administration at the University of Glasgow.
Baroness Scott of Needham Market
President of the Liberal Democrats
Ros Scott was elected President of the Liberal Democrats on November 8th 2008 in a ballot of all eligible members of the Party, and took office on January 1st 2009.
Ros lives in Needham Market, in Suffolk, the town that she represented first as a District councillor and then as a County councillor between 1991 and 2005.
Ros became deputy Leader, and then Leader, of the Liberal Democrat Group on Suffolk County Council, which was in joint Liberal Democrat/Labour control. She was a founder member of the Local Government Association in 1997, going on to chair the Transport Executive and representing United Kingdom local government on the European Union's Committee of the Regions.
In 1999, Ros was the number two candidate on the East of England European list at the same time as studying for her first degree in European Studies with German at the University of East Anglia. In May 2000, Ros was made a Life Peer, and sits in the House of Lords as Baroness Scott of Needham Market, and has been a frontbench spokesperson on both local government and transport.
Ros was a member of the Commission for Integrated Transport from 2000 to 2006, a board member of the Audit Commission and a non-executive director of the regulator of the Government's landfill tax credit scheme, Entrust. Between 2005 and 2008, Ros was a non-executive director of the Lloyds Register, a Mutual and Provident not for profit company specialising in safety throughout the world.
Ros is married to Mark Valladares, and her hobbies include singing with an a capella group, gardening and cooking. She has two adult children, Sally and Jamie.
Rt Hon Kevin Barron MP
Chair, Health Select Committee
Kevin was educated at Maltby Hall Secondary School and began his working life as an underground electrician at Maltby Colliery. After studying social sciences at Sheffield University on a day release course he went on to Ruskin College, Oxford, as a mature student. He was elected as member of Parliament for the Rother Valley in 1983 when the constituency was divided into two.
From 1983-5 he was a Member of the House of Commons Select Committee on Energy, and then from 1985-88 he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Leader of the Labour Party, Rt Hon Neil Kinnock MP.
From 1988-92 he was Shadow Minister for Energy, and then from 1992-93 he served as a Member of the House of Commons Select Committee on the Environment. From 1993-95 he was Shadow Employment Minister.
In 1993 & 94 he originated the Private Members' Bill to ban the advertising and promotion of tobacco products. From October 1995 – April 97, he served as Shadow Health Minister. From May 1997 – January 2002, he was Chair of the PLP Health Committee
In May 1997 Kevin was appointed member of the Intelligence and Security Committee, and in August 2001 he was appointed to the Privy Council.
Since 2005, Kevin has chaired the Health Select Committee, and has been a member of the Liaison Committee, and the Standards and Privileges Committee.
Kevin is also Chair of: the All Party Group on the Pharmaceutical Industry; the All Party Group on Smoking and Health; the All Party British/Bulgarian Group; the All Party Film Group; the All Party Connecting Communities; and the All Party Earth Sciences Group.
Martin Stanley
Former Chief Executive of the Competition Commission
Martin was appointed Chief Executive of the Competition Commission in 2004, and served there until 2009. The Commission is an independent body which decides whether large firms may be allowed to merge with one another, investigates whether particular markets are working satisfactorily, and acts as a Court of Appeal from certain decisions by utility regulators.
Most Recently Martin carried out the role of Interim Chief Executive of the Public Sector in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Martin was born in 1948 and grew up in the North-East of England where he attended the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He then studied chemistry and economics at Oxford University.
Martin joined the civil service in 1971 and first worked in the Inland Revenue before moving to the Department of Trade and Industry where he held a number of senior positions. In particular, from 1990 to 1992, he was DTI's Principal Private Secretary, i.e. he led the teams which supported the day to day activities of the Secretary of State and other Ministers.
Martin particularly enjoys working closely with industry and, between 1992 and 1998, led a number of teams responsible for the Government's relations with, and support for, the vehicle, steel, engineering, offshore oil/gas and international projects industries.
Martin then transferred to the Cabinet Office where he was Director of the Regulatory Impact Unit, responsible for helping Government Ministers and Departments find the right balance between under-regulating (and so failing to protect the public) and over-regulating (and so failing to preserve freedoms, or creating excessive bureaucracy).
From 2000 until 2004 Martin was Chief Executive of the Postal Services Commission (Postcomm), the Government department that regulates the UK postal services industry. Reporting to a Chairman and 5 non-exec Commissioners, Martin oversaw the research and consultation which led to the opening of the whole of the UK postal market – previously a Royal Mail monopoly – to competition from other postal operators
Martin has held non-exec appointments with American Express and IBM, and, until 2004, was non-executive Chairman of Atmaana, a company which supports senior executives as they deliver critical projects.
Robert Rogers
Clerk Assistant and Director General, Chamber and Committee Services, House of Commons
Educated at Tonbridge School (scholar) and Lincoln College, Oxford (scholar and Judd Exhibitioner) where he read Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic and was then a Rhodes Research Scholar, Robert researched briefly (on Anglo-Saxon colour words!) before joining the Ministry of Defence equally briefly. In 1972 he was appointed an Assistant Clerk in the House of Commons. He has served in a range of procedural posts including Clerk of Private Members’ Bills, and Select Committee posts including Clerk of the Select Committees on Defence and on European Legislation. He was Parliamentary Counsellor to the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1992 to 1995. Robert was appointed a Principal Clerk in 1998 and since then has been Clerk of Delegated Legislation, Principal Clerk of Select Committees, Secretary of the House of Commons Commission, Clerk of the Journals, Principal Clerk of the Table Office, and Clerk of Legislation. He took up his present post in October 2009.
Robert is a Fellow and Trustee of the Industry and Parliament Trust, an Associate of the National School of Government, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Parliamentary Studies. He has contributed to various books and journals on European, constitutional, Parliamentary and governance issues, is co-author of How Parliament Works (6th edition 2006) and author of Order! Order! A Parliamentary Miscellany (2009). In a professional capacity he has visited more than 50 parliaments worldwide. His recreations are music (he is a church organist and singer), cricket (now mainly as spectator), real tennis, shooting, sailing and the countryside.
