New Board members for the Bar Standards Board (2)
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has today announced the appointment of three new lay Board members.
The new Board members are:
- Lara Fielden;
- Kathryn Stone OBE; and
- Stephen Thornton CBE.
The Board is made up of 15 people: seven barristers, seven lay members and a lay Chair. The new appointments fill imminent vacancies, and help the regulator ensure that its Board maintains the range of skills, experience and perspectives that it needs to undertake its independent regulation in the public interest.
Information about current Board members is available on the website.
Chair of the BSB, Sir Andrew Burns said: “These three new appointments will add a welcome range of new perspectives and insight into our work. Each of our new lay members will bring fresh
experiences of regulating in the public interest. I would also like to thank the outgoing members Ms Rolande Anderson and Dr Anne Wright CBE – and indeed Mr Rob Behrens CBE who left us earlier this year – for the invaluable advice and support which they have offered to the Board during their years of service.”
The incoming Board members were selected by an independent panel, chaired by Bronwen Curtis CBE.
Speaking about the appointments, Bronwen Curtis said: “The panel interviewed a diverse group of experienced and high-calibre candidates in a competitive and fair selection process. We are delighted that Lara, Kathryn and Stephen will be joining the Board.”
Ms Fielden, Ms Stone OBE and Mr Thornton CBE will take up their appointments from 1 January 2018 which is also the date when new BSB Chair,The Rt Hon the Baroness Blackstone, will take up her post..
Lara Fielden
Lara Fielden started her career as a producer and director at the BBC, working on programmes including Newsnight and Panorama. She was a broadcasting standards regulator at Ofcom and currently serves as a Complaints Committee member for IPSO. Lara has served on a number of academic, advisory and regulatory boards and committees, including for the University of Oxford Reuters Institute, the University of Sheffield Journalism Studies Department and as a Lay Examiner for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. In addition, Lara is the current Chair of Governors at the Children’s Hospital School at Great Ormand Street and University College Hospital and the panel chair at the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. She was a lay magistrate on the City of Westminster bench from 2003 – 2011. Lara stepped down from the panel at the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service on being offered this appointment.
Kathryn Stone OBE
Kathryn Stone OBE is a public sector, criminal justice and standards specialist who is currently the Chief Legal Ombudsman of England and Wales. She has been a commissioner with the Independent Police Complaints Commission and the Commissioner for Victims and Survivors in Northern Ireland. For eleven years Kathryn was the CEO of Voice UK, a charity supporting people with learning disabilities and vulnerable people who have experienced crime and abuse. Kathryn has had a distinguished career within social care and has been Head of Inspection in a number of London boroughs. Kathryn will stand down as Chief Legal Ombudsman at the end of this year and from January 2018, she will be the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Kathryn was made an Officer of the British Empire in 2007 for her services to people with learning disabilities.
Stephen Thornton CBE
Stephen Thornton CBE is currently a Council Member on the Nursing and Midwifery Council; a non-executive director of the independent responsibility body for the gambling industry, The Senet Group; and a member of the UK Board for Healthcare Chaplaincy. He was formerly Deputy Chair of Monitor, the independent regulator for NHS Foundation Trusts (the forerunner of NHS Improvement) and a Commissioner on the Healthcare Commission (the forerunner of the Care Quality Commission). In addition, he is presently Chair of the East of England Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care. Stephen was a CEO in the health sector for many years and was given honorary fellowship by the Royal College of Physicians in 2010. Stephen was made Commander of the British Empire in the 2002 New Year’s honours list for services to the NHS.
About the Bar Standards Board
Our mission is to regulate barristers and their professional practice and specialised legal services businesses in England and Wales in the public interest. For more information about what we do
visit: http://bit.ly/1gwui8t