Ben Wesson is a head of department at the Nursing and Midwifery Council, where he is responsible for leading a team which investigates and responds to complaints. Before this, he managed projects and public affairs at the Patients Association and worked as a political adviser in local government.

Ben serves as a local councillor for Pitshanger Ward in the London Borough of Ealing. As part of his Council responsibilities, he serves on the Health and Adult Social Services and Genuinely Affordable Homes Scrutiny Panels.

Outside of work, Ben studies German and Spanish at the Open University. He enjoys reading (when he gets a chance!) and travelling.

PK originally trained as a scientist and now is the Director for Strategy, Corporate Affairs & Programmes for Forestry England.

Forestry England manage the nation’s forests which are the largest public land holding in the country at over a quarter of a million hectares, that welcomes 300M people every year as the largest provider of outdoor recreation in England.  Her role includes responsibility for Forestry England’s Organisational Strategy, Corporate Governance, Compliance, Organisational Performance, Strategic Programmes, Information Governance, Risk, Insight, CEO Office, and the Natural Capital Accounts, Forestry England have a world first for a set of accounts for forests at the scale and size of estate.

PK is passionate about making the case for forestry and the massive potential of the nation’s forests and all forests for delivering a valuable,  sustainable timber resource, providing wonderful benefits for people and communities, act as a haven for nature and wildlife to thrive and to help mitigate the challenges of climate change.  In 2017 PK was given an award for being one of the top 50 most influential BAME leaders in the public sector.

Verity Richards joined the Housing Ombudsman as the Head of Dispute Support in March 2021 after spending over 12 years working at a large, national housing association in various roles. She is a Member of the Chartered Management Institute and the Chartered Institute of Housing and uses her skills and experience to ensure that we intervene fairly where there is evidence of delays in complaint handling by member landlords.

Since joining the Housing Ombudsman, Verity has overseen the expansion of our Dispute Support teams, developed our Customer Charter, refined our approach to managing unacceptable behaviours and delivered operational changes to case handling following changes set out in the Building Safety Act. Verity is the operational lead for the interactive online portal, having been involved in its design, development and trial prior to roll out in 2023.

Her current focus is leading operational change in response to the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 20203 to ensure that landlords comply with the statutory Complaint Handing Code and that a strategic, intelligence-led approach is embedded in the Dispute Support function.

Chris Gill is Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Glasgow where he specialises in access to justice and administrative justice. He has a particular interest in the ombudsman institution and public sector complaint handling. Chris previously worked in complaint roles at the Advertising Standards Authority and in the office of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. He remains actively involved ombudsman and complaints policy and sits on the Ombudsman Association’s Validation Committee, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission’s Consumer Panel, and the Administrative Justice Council’s Academic Panel. Chris is regularly commissioned as a consultant for consumer research, independent reviews, complaint handling evaluations, and benchmarking.

He is currently conducting academic research projects funded by the British Academy and the Economic and Social Research Council on access to justice for asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland and on enhancing the social care complaints system in Scotland. For more information, please visit: https://profchrisgill.com/

Miriam oversees teams of investigators who consider complaints from those in prisons, Immigration Removal Centres and those on probation. She focuses on driving up the eligibility of complaints and increasing the awareness of complaints processes both locally and the PPO.

Ahead of that Miriam was the Deputy Director at MOJ responsible for commissioning national and local services for victims and witnesses of crime.

Miriam’s previous roles included Head of the Modern Slavery Unit at the Home Office leading the government’s response to tackling modern slavery. Head of Evaluation and Finance in the Troubled Families Team and Assistant Director in the Office of the Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses, developing policy for victims of crime.

Prior to joining national government, Miriam worked for the Government Office South-West, heading up the Home Office Crime Reduction Team,  following 13 years in local government working in community safety and community development.

Rosemary Agnew took up the post of Scottish Public Services Ombudsman on 1 May 2017. Immediately prior to this she was the Scottish Information Commissioner (2012-2017).

Since 2001, Rosemary has held various roles in relation to public sector complaints, including with the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and the Local Government Ombudsman in the UK.

Rosemary is committed to transparent, sustainable improvement in Scottish public services. She sees complaints and what is learned from them as an integral part of the improvement landscape. Equally, she recognises the importance of being the final stage of the complaints process in Scotland for most public services and in ensuring that, where things go wrong for individuals, action is taken to put them right as far as possible.

Brian leads the Institute of Customer Service’s activities in research and insight. He joined the Institute from BT where, over 18 years, he worked in a variety of senior marketing, commercial and strategic roles focusing on a broad range of customers from consumers and small businesses to large, global corporates and government departments. He began his career in BT managing a busy customer service operation in the North East of England. Brian’s research for The Institute has examined Evolving Customer Behaviours, Employee Engagement and Customer Satisfaction, the People and Technology Interface in Customer Service, Service Productivity and the Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Financial Performance. Brian holds a degree in Modern History and French from New College, Oxford and a Masters degree in European Policy and Management from Birkbeck College, University of London.