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The Ministry of Justice has announced the appointment of a new team of non-executive board members.

Liz Doherty, Sir Martin Narey and Lizzie Noel have agreed to join the board following a public recruitment exercise that ended last month.

They will join Sir Theodore Agnew, who has accepted the role of lead non-executive board member following an open competition.

Non-executive board members are senior figures from outside government, appointed to provide challenge to government departments. As set out in the government’s Code of Practice, non-executive board members should be appointed directly by the Secretary of State and are not civil servants. Their role is to:

• give advice to ministers and officials on the operational and delivery implications of policy proposals;
• provide independent support, guidance and challenge on the progress and implementation of the department’s strategic direction;
• advise on performance and support the development of Key Performance Indicators to monitor implementation of the department’s business plans.

Liz Doherty brings significant financial expertise to the board with 30 years’ international finance experience in a number of large multi-nationals, including Unilever and Tesco. Her significant financial and previous non-executive experience makes her well placed to chair the department’s Audit and Risk Committee.

Sir Martin Narey is a former prison governor and was the first Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service. He has extensive knowledge of the criminal justice system and, as the former Chief Executive of Barnado’s, the UK’s largest children’s charity, he also brings considerable experience from outside the public sector.

Lizzie Noel has a wealth of experience in both the public and private sectors. As a former director of communications at government services and education business Tribal Group plc, an expert adviser at the Department for Education, and a former senior aide to the Mayor of London, she brings valued knowledge of working in business as well as public service reform and programme design.

Sir Theodore Agnew was appointed as a non-executive board member for the Ministry of Justice in June of this year, and has now accepted his appointment as lead non-executive. Sir Theodore previously served for 5 years as a non-executive board member at the Department for Education, where he helped drive efficiencies and improve departmental performance.

Additonal information

A fair and open competition for the posts was conducted, with the recruitment and selection process overseen by Sir Ian Cheshire, the Government’s lead non-executive.

An advertisement for the vacant position of lead non-executive board member and additional non-executives was published on 4 June. The deadline for applications for the lead non-executive was 10 June. The deadline for the additional non-executive roles was 30 June. The lead non-executive was appointed on 16 July and the additional non-executives were appointed on 12 August and 19 August.

All shortlisted candidates were subject to a panel-based assessment. In accordance with the rules, the panel for the lead non-executive comprised the government’s lead non-executive, the Secretary of State and the Permanent Secretary. The panel for the additional non-executives comprised the new lead non-executive board member and the Permanent Secretary.

Recruitment of both the lead non-executive board member and the additional non-executive board members followed the procedures set out in the Government’s Code of Good Practice for Corporate Governance in Central Government Departments, and its supporting guidance.

The guidance makes clear:

• Non-executive board members in Whitehall will be appointed by the Secretary of State. The appointment of lead non-executives will be on the approval of the Prime Minister.
• It is recommended that the appointment panel includes the Secretary of State, the Permanent Secretary of the department and the government lead non-executive board member (for appointments to the role of lead NEBM) or lead non-executive board member (for all other NEBMs). The Secretary of State may wish to delegate the assessment of shortlisted candidates to the Permanent Secretary and a Lead Non-Executive Board Member, and to make their selection based on the recommendations of the panel.
• Non-executives on departmental boards are not employees and they do not benefit from temporary civil service status.
• Previous or current political activity should not be an automatic bar to appointment.

The new team of non-executive board members will attend their first board meeting next month.

Biographies

Sir Theodore Agnew

Sir Theodore Agnew was appointed lead non-executive board member at the Ministry of Justice in July 2015.

Sir Theodore previously served as a non-executive board member at the Department for Education, where he was chair of the department’s Academies Board from 2013 to 2015.

Outside of the department, Sir Theodore founded Somerton Capital LLP in 2007 and co-founded the WNS Group (a US listed company) in 1990.

Sir Martin Narey

Sir Martin Narey was appointed non-executive board member at the Ministry of Justice in August 2015.

After a brief career in the NHS, Sir Martin began training to be a prison governor in 1982 and worked at a number of prisons before moving into a succession of Whitehall posts. This period included work on timeliness in the criminal justice system and led to the introduction of the so called “Narey Courts” which succeeded in significantly reducing court delays. He returned to the Prison Service in 1996 and became Director General (CEO) in 1998.

In 2003 he became the first CEO of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). During this period he received the Chartered Institute of Management’s Gold Medal for Leadership, the first public sector recipient of this single annual award for 10 years.

He left NOMS in 2005 to become Chief Executive of Barnardo’s where he stayed for 5 years, during which time he chaired The Campaign To End Child Poverty, and saw Barnardo’s grow by 40% to become, once again, the UK’s biggest children’s charity. Since leaving Barnardo’s in 2011 he has advised the government about adoption and other children’s issues, including the reform of social work education. He chairs the National Adoption Leadership Board, The Portman Group and The Brain Tumour Charity and he sits on the Council of the Advertising Standards Authority.

He was made a Knight Bachelor in 2013 in recognition of his services to vulnerable people.

Liz Doherty

Liz Doherty was appointed non-executive board member at the Ministry of Justice in August 2015.

Liz is a senior finance executive with 30 years broad-based, international finance experience in a number of large multi-national organisations across a range of industries.

From 1979, Liz spent over two decades in a range of director level financial roles at Unilever, one of the world’s largest FMCG companies.

Following Unilever, Liz joined Tesco as Group International Finance Director from 2001 to 2007. Here she oversaw the creation and development of a financial company for the total business which delivered estimated savings of £50m over five years whilst also reducing the number of non-trading companies by 19, resulting in savings of over £1m per annum.

After spending 2 years as CFO at global document management solutions company Brambles Ltd, she moved to health, hygiene and homecare giants Reckitt Benckiser where she had responsibility for Finance, Tax, Treasury, Audit, Investor Relations, Legal, Company Secretarial and Business Services.

Liz is currently a Non-Exec Director of Nokia, Delhaize, Corbion and Dunelm. She sits on the Audit Committees of all 4 companies, including chairing that of Dunelm.

Lizzie Noel

Lizzie Noel was appointed non-executive board member of the Ministry of Justice in August 2015.

Lizzie is a communications specialist with 12 years of senior commercial experience. She was on the founding team of Tribal Group plc, the government services provider, principally to the education and training sectors, where she was director of communications from start up to annual revenues of over £200m and 2,000 employees.

From 2009-12, she was a senior aide the Mayor of London, tasked with creating a city-wide volunteering programme for all 32 London boroughs. ‘Team London’, which is inspired by the US Cities of Service model, remains a key priority for the Mayor in his second term.

From 2012-15, she was an expert adviser to the Department for Education, during which time she worked with ministers and officials to implement the academies and free school programmes.

She has 20 years trustee experience on charity boards and governing bodies.