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Who we are

The BGI is an informal body with a two-tier structure: a Board of Governors who are concerned with the broad strategy of the group and matters of propriety and regularity and an Executive Committee who prepare the group's reports and provide advice to Parliamentary Committees and others with an interest in our work.

Governors and Executive Committee members other than the Executive Director and Secretary are unpaid volunteers. Administrative and financial support for the work of the BGI is provided by The Constitution Society, an independent, non-party educational foundation which works to promote informed debate about constitutional reform and supports initiatives aimed at improving the quality of government and legislation in Britain.

The members of the Board of Governors are Lord Butler, Sir Christopher Foster, Sir Richard Mottram and Nat le Roux.

The BGI's Executive Committee is made up of people with practical experience in government at a very senior level who have no links to particular political parties. Associate members receive papers and help with our work on an ad hoc basis but do not routinely attend meetings.

The current members of the Executive Committee are:

Sir Paul Britton,former Head of the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat, Cabinet Office.

Lord Butler, former Cabinet Secretary.

Sir Geoffrey Chipperfield, former Permanent Secretary of the Department of Energy.

Roger Dawe, former Director General for Further and Higher Education, Department for Education.

Sir Christopher Foster, (first BGI Chair from 2006 to 2013), former adviser to the chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers and former executive member of the Coopers & Lybrand board, professor of economics at LSE, and senior advisor to successive governments.

Sir Thomas Legg, former Permanent Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Department.

Sir Nicholas Monck, former Second Secretary HM Treasury and Permanent Secretary of the Department of Employment.

Sir Richard Mottram (Chair), former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, and the Department for Work and Pensions, and in two appointments in the Cabinet Office.

Peter Owen (Executive Director), former Head of the Cabinet Office Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat, Director General for Schools; former Secretary General of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Phillip Ward, former Director of Local Government Performance in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Alice Taylor, secretary.

Associate Members are:

Sir John Elvidge, former Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government.

David Faulkner, former Deputy Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office.

Paul McQuail, former Deputy Secretary in the Department of the Environment; former Chief Executive of the London Borough of Hounslow.

Sir David Omand, former Security and Intelligence Coordinator and Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office, former Permanent Secretary of the Home Office.

Willy Rickett, former Director General Energy Markets and Infrastructure, Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Sir Hugh Taylor, former Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health.