About Us

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 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 (Chair), Nat le Roux and Sir Richard Mottram. The BGI’s Executive Committee is made up of people with practical experience of 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.

Executive Committee Members

Dame Ursula Brennan

Former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice.

Sir Paul Britton

Former Head of the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat, Cabinet Office.

Lord Butler

Former Cabinet Secretary.

Roger Dawe

Former Director General for Further and Higher Education, Department for Education.

Alun Evans

Former Director, Scotland Office; Chief Executive of the British Academy.

Sir Christopher Foster

First BGI Chair from 2006 to 2013. Formerly adviser to the Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers and executive member of the Coopers & Lybrand board, professor of economics at LSE, and senior adviser to successive governments.

Sir Thomas Legg (Deputy Chair)

Former Permanent Secretary of the Lord Chancellor’s Department.

Sir Leigh Lewis

Former Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus and Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Peter Makeham

Former Director General Strategy and International, Home Office

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 Permanent Secretary appointments in the Cabinet Office.

Sir David Normington

Former Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education and the Home Office; former First Civil Service Commissioner.

Peter Owen (Executive Director)

Former Head of the Cabinet Office Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat and Director General for Schools in the Department for Education; former Secretary General of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Adam Sharples

Former Director General for Employment in the Department for Work and Pensions.

Phillip Ward

Former Director of Local Government Performance in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Associate Members

Penny Boys

Former Executive Director of the Office of Fair Trading

Sir Geoffrey Chipperfield

Former Permanent Secretary of the Department of Energy.

Sir John Elvidge

Former Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government.

David Faulkner

Former Deputy Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office.

Bronwyn Hill

Former Permanent Secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Howell James

Former Permanent Secretary, Government Communication.

Lord Judge

Former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales

Barbara Moorhouse

Former Chief Operating Officer/Chief Finance Officer in quoted international companies, Director General in the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Transport, and Chief Operating Officer at Westminster City Council.

Sir David Omand

Former Security and Intelligence Coordinator and Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office and Permanent Secretary of the Home Office.

Willy Rickett

Former Director General Energy Markets and Infrastructure, Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Martin Stanley

Former Director of the Cabinet Office Better Regulation Unit and Chief Executive of the Competition Commission; author of “How to be a Civil Servant”.

Sir Hugh Taylor

Former Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health.