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The Panel on Fair Access to the Professions

The Panel on Fair Access to the Professions was announced on the 13th January 2009. The Panel will complement measures contained in the New Opportunities White Paper [External website].

The Panel will look at the processes and structures that govern recruitment into key professions. It will identify actions that the professions, supported by government where relevant, could undertake to improve access into professions.

The Panel will run until summer 2009 supported by a secretariat based in the Cabinet Office.

Call for Evidence:

On the 28th January the Panel issued an open call for evidence. The Panel welcome contributions until 20th March. The Call for Evidence is divided into four parts and can be downloaded below:

• Call for Evidence [PDF 119KB, 8 pages]

Meeting information

• Information from the first panel meeting
• Meeting timeline

List of Panel Members

• Chair 
  Rt. Hon. Alan Milburn MP
• Academia 
  Professor Madeleine Atkins, Vice-Chancellor, Coventry University
• Accountacy and Business Advice
  Neil Sherlock, KPMG
• Armed Forces 
  Major General David McDowall MBE, Armed Forces
• Arts 
  Jude Kelly, Artistic Director, Southbank Centre
• Architecture
  Sunand Prasad, President, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
• Civil Service 
  Gill Rider, Director General, Civil Service Capability Group
• Engineering
  Philip Greenish CBE, Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering
• Expert 
  Trevor Phillips OBE, Head of Commission for Equalities and Human Rights
• Expert 
  Geoffrey Vos QC, Chairman of The Social Mobility Foundation
• Finance 
  Azeem Ibrahim, founder of the European Commerce and Mercantile Bank
• Journalism 
  Elinor Goodman, Freelance journalist and former political editor of channel 4 news
• Law 
  Lord David Neuberger PC QC
• Local Government 
  Katherine Kerswell, Chief Executive, Northampton County Council
• Media 
  Michael Grade CBE, Executive Chairman, ITV
• Medicine 
  Professor Sir John Tooke, Dean, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry
• Police 
  Sara Thornton, Chief Constable, Thames Valley Police
• Politics 
  Baroness Gillian Shephard, Conservative Peer
• Publishing 
  Gail Rebuck, Chair and Chief Executive, Random House
• Science 
  Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal
• Unions 
  Francis O’Grady, Deputy General Secretary, TUC

List of Panel Members [PDF 74KB,1 page]

Further details

• Press Notice announcing the Panel
• Terms of Reference for the Panel [PDF 75KB, 1 page]
• Frequently Asked Questions about the Panel [PDF 70KB, 2 pages]

This page will be regularly updated as the Panel’s work progresses.

You can contact The Panel on Fair Access to the Professions by email: access.professions@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk

or in writing at: