Political Updates 11th December 2017

This week’s Political Updates, covers moves and changes at all levels of government. 

  Government Departments

• Professor Andrew McNaughton has been appointed Strategic Technical Adviser at High Speed Two (HS2) Limited
• Anthony Browne has been appointed as Chair of the Regulatory Policy Committee at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
• Dame Judith Macgregor has been appointed to the board of VisitBritain at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
• Michael Eakin, Catherine Mallyon, Andrew Miller, George Mpanga, Elisabeth Murdoch, Paul Roberts and Tessa Ross have been appointed as general council members at Arts Council England. David Joseph has been reappointed
• Sukhy Johal has been appointed as Midlands Area Chair, Kate Willard as North Area Chair, Roni Brown as South East Area Chair, and Rosemary Squire reappointed as South West Area Chair of Arts Council England
• Sarah Harrison is to stand down as Chief Executive of the UK Gambling Commission.
• Andrew Pearce has been appointed Governor of Montserrat at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
• Christine Middlemiss is to replace Nigel Gibbens as Chief Veterinary Officer in March at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Alan Milburn has resigned as Chair of the Board and Baroness Shephard, Paul Gregg and David Johnston has resigned as members of the Social Mobility Commission.

House of Commons

•  Colin Clark and Glyn Davies have been appointed as members of the Environmental Audit Committee
•  Jo Platt has been appointed as a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
•  Douglas Ross replaced Esther McVey as a member of the Home Affairs Committee
•  Stephanie Peacock replaced Keith Vaz as a member of the International Trade Committee
•  Carol Monaghan has replaced Stephanie Peacock as a member of the Science and Technology Committee

House of Lords

• Lord Loomba (life peer) was non-affiliated and now sits as crossbench.

European Parliament

This week, the European Parliament will be holding plenary sessions in Strasbourg.