§ Mr. Keith SimpsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will publish the CVs of the non-executive members of the DEFRA management board. [47388]
§ Mr. MorleyDEFRA's management board includes three non-executive members, Elizabeth Ransom and Alison Huxtable, both with private sector backgrounds, and Richard Wakeford, Chief Executive of the Countryside Agency. Their biographical details are as follows:
Alison Huxtable was formerly a member of the Amerada Hess senior management team for the UK. She was responsible for developing the people, structure and strategies of six distinct areas of professional service provision. She was also instrumental in the Amerada Hess change management programme. She was called to the Bar in 1983, and is a Justice of the Peace in Devon. She was appointed as a non-executive member of the MAFF management board in September 2000.
Elizabeth Ransom was a consultant with KPMG for 15 years, nine years of which as a partner. She led KPMG's work in central Government, focusing on improving performance in Government Departments and Agencies. The Departments she was involved with include the Ministry of Defence, DfEE, FCO and MAFF. She therefore has wide experience of managing change in public services. She was appointed as a non-executive member of the MAFF management board in September 2000.
Richard Wakeford became Chief Executive of the Countryside Agency at its formation in April 1999 and was previously Chief Executive of the Countryside Commission from 1996. Prior to this he worked in the Cabinet Office, where he dealt with economic and environmental affairs across Government. Before that in the Department of the Environment, he developed a range of land use planning policies and implemented the 'plan-led', system. He edited the land use and transport chapters of the 1994 UK Sustainable Development strategy, building on his earlier work on the team which prepared this country's first environment White Paper "This Common Inheritance" in 1990. He was appointed a non-executive member of the management board of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in September 2001 and is a member of the UK Sustainable Development Commission.