New Chair and member of the SLCC announced
A new Chair and a new member of the SLCC board have been announced by the Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, Annabella Ewing. Both individuals join the majority of non-lawyer members on the SLCC’s Board.
New Chair
Jim (James) Martin has been appointed as the new Chair of the SLCC. Jim held the post of Scottish Public Services Ombudsman from May 2009 to April 2017. Prior to that, from 2007 to 2009, he was the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland and a member of the Scottish Funding Council from 2004 to 2009. From 1987 to 1995 he was General Secretary for the Educational Institute of Scotland. He is currently a Member of the Scottish Government Panel to Review the Regulation of Legal Services in Scotland.
In his earlier career Jim was a Non-executive Chairman of Logica and ran a management consultancy. He is currently a Trustee of the National Mining Museum of Scotland and Positive Prisons, Positive Futures. He was awarded a CBE in the 2018 New Years’ honours list.
On taking up his appointment, Jim thanked his immediate predecessor: “Bill Brackenridge has led the organisation through a significant period of improvement in governance, performance and engagement. He helped open the door to reforms which could help better serve consumers and the legal sector, as well as dealing with some major challenges to the system.
I am delighted to join at a time where there is real opportunity for further improvement and reform, and look forward to meeting consumer groups and professionals as we set the agenda for the coming decade.”
The Chair also thanked Professor Kevin Dunion OBE for his service, as he has also come to the end of his statutory five year appointment. In particular he thanked him for his work championing freedom of information and knowledge management at the SLCC.
New Board member
Morag Sheppard also joins as a new member of the Board. Morag retired from Capita Life and Pensions in June 2015, having been Frameworks Director since October 2012, creating and implementing operational control frameworks deployed in the UK, Europe and India. Prior to that she was Operations Director from April 2008. Morag has studied at the Universities of Aberdeen, Munich and Edinburgh.
Her background includes corporate governance: implementing organisational change; and operational risk management in a highly regulated sector. Morag has directed a large complaints function, resolving a variety of complaints from the public and professional advisors.
Chief Executive Neil Stevenson commented, “There has been a strong response to these and other recent vacancies on our Board, with significant competition and high calibre candidates. Members not only carry out a leadership and governance role but are also involved in some of the final binding decisions on individual complaints within our system.
We are delighted to welcome Jim and Morag, these appointments finalise the line-up of our top team for the next few years and prepare us for what we anticipate will be a radical period of change in legal regulation and particularly complaints handling.”