§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will name the persons already appointed to the posts of senior regional directors, consequent to his decision to establish multi-departmental teams together with their biographical details and occupational experience; and what is the period of each appointment.
§ Mr. BaldryThe information requested by the hon. Member is as follows:
Eastern: John Turner East Midlands: Mark Lanyon Mersey side: John Stoker North East: Pamela Denham North West: Marianne Neville-Rolfe South East: Gillian Ashmore South West: Brian Leonard West Midlands: David Ritchie Yorkshire and Humberside: Jeremy Walker Biographical notes:
Eastern
John Turner has been Deputy Chief Executive of the Employment service since 1989. He joined the Civil service in 1967, and after 14 years in the Department of Trade and Industry and its predecessor Departments working on industry sponsorship at home and abroad, he trasferred to the Department of Employment group and worked on training polices and programmes in the then Manpower Services Commission. He then served as Principal Private Secretary to Lord Young and Sir Norman Fowler and was then Head of Small Firms and Tourism Division.
East Midlands
Mark Lanyon has been DTI's Regional Director for Yorkshire and Humberside since April 1993. He is a graduate of the University of 145W St. Andrews, a chartered engineer and a member of the British Institute of Management. He joined the Civil Service in 1963, and has served in the DTI's South West Regional Office, and from 1982–85 as Regional Director in the West Midlands office. His career also includes working on programmes designed to spread best practice in advanced manfacturing technology and managerial methods, computer aided engineering, advanced robotics and manfacturing processes. Between 1990 and 1993, he was Assistant Director of Consumer Affairs at the Office of Fair Trading.
Merseyside
John Stoker has been Director of the Merseyside Task Force since 1992. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Brasenose College, Oxford. He joined the Department of the Environment in 1973. He has served in the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Office, based in Leeds (dealing with housing affairs), and in London on housing policy and rates reform. He also served as a Civil Service Selection Board assessor and in the Cabinet Office. Since 1985 he has headed Divisions responsible for departmental organisation, housing (Estate Action), the preparation of the 1990 Environment White Paper (Our Common Inheritance) and the coordination of the department's financial programmes.
North East
Pamela Denham has been Regional Director for the Department of Trade and Industry in the North East since 1990. She was educated at Central Newcastle High School, and holds a doctorate in Physics from King's College, London. She joined the Civil Service in 1967, and has spent much of her career working in policy related to Industry—including international negotiations, Government assistance for research and development, and running programmes to encourage the application of best practice and new technology. She led the Quality Design and Education Division of the DTI from 1985–89, before a secondment in the Management and Development Group at the Cabinet Office.
North West
Marianne Neville-Rolfe is at present Chief Executive of the Civil Service College and Director of the Cabinet Office Top Management Programme. She was educated at St. Mary's Convent, Shaftesbury, and Oxford University. After seven years with the Confederation of British Industry including two years in Brussels, she joined the Department of Trade and Industry in 1973. Her jobs there have included dealing with selective financial assistance to industry, the promotion of major export projects, and most recently, responsibility for policy towards the Single European Market, including ensuring that business was fully informed of the implications and opportunities.
South East
Gillian Ashmore is currently on secondment from the Department of Transport to the British Railways Board working on railway privatisation. She joined the Civil Service in 1971 and has worked variously in the Departments of the Environment, Transport, Employment and Trade and Industry. On the Transport side, she has worked mainly in the public transport field. In the latter two Departments she was Deputy Director of the Enterprise and Deregulation Unit. Mrs. Ashmore has also been a non-executive director of P & O European Transport.
South West
Brian Leonard is Regional Director for the Departments of Environment and Transport in Newcastle. He was educated at Dr. Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham and the London School of Economics. He joined the Civil Service in 1974 and has worked in divisions dealing with the Government's public expenditure and private rented sector housing, and on secondment to a major housing association in London. In 1986/87, he served as Assistant Private Secretary to two Secretaries of State and in 1987/88 spent a year in North America on a Hubert Humphrey Fellowship to the University of Minnesota. On return he served as a Regional Controller for Housing in the London Regional Office and as head of the division responsible for local authority housing finance policy in England.
West Midlands
David Ritchie is Regional Director of the Departments of Environment and Transport in Newcastle. He was educated at 146W Manchester Grammar School and St. John's College, Cambridge. He joined the Ministry of Transport in 1970 and he has had two spells in the joint Environment and Transport North West regional Office. He has also served in London dealing with Water Legislation and Housing association Policy.
Yorkshire and Humberside
Jeremy Walker has been regional Director of the Employment Department in Yorkshire and Humberside for the last five years, and leader of the Leeds and Bradford City Action Team since 1990. He joined the Department of Employment in 1971 after graduating from Birmingham University. He has also worked in the Cabinet office; on an exchange programme with the Australian Government; and in the Manpower Services Commission, where he headed up the Community Programme and the New Job Training Scheme during the 1980s.
The duration of these appointments will be up to three years in the first instance.
§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish the job descriptions of the newly-appointed senior regional directors for urban regeneration; what variation there is between areas; and what specific duties will apply to that of the director for London.
§ Mr. BaldryThe duties of the new senior regional directors will be to implement Government policies in the English regions on behalf of the Department of Environment, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Employment—training, enterprise and education directorate—and Department of Transport; to ensure that the development of Government policies and programmes for the English regions are informed by local views and experience; and to contribute to Government policy formation for the regions. These duties will apply to all directors, including London, although the emphasis given to particular policies and programmes will differ from region to region to take account of local circumstances.