Complaints Committee

Lord Edward Faulks

Chair of the Committee

Lord Faulks has a long career as a barrister specialising in claims arising from the Human Rights Act, professional and clinical negligence, personal injury, education, police claims and public law. He became a QC in 1996. He was appointed to the House of Lords in 2010 and served as Justice Minister from 2013-2016. He now sits as an unaffiliated peer.

Richard Best

Deputy Chair of the Complaints Committee

Richard Best spent more than 25 years working in print media. He served as editor of the North Devon Journal, Mid Devon Gazette and West Briton. He was also managing editor of Cornwall Today. He now runs the consultancy Straightshot Communications.

Nazir Afzal OBE

Nazir Afzal was Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West of England and has prosecuted some of the UK’s most high profile cases, including child sex abuse in Rochdale. More recently, he has worked as an international expert on extremism and radicalisation and is a member of the Manchester Mayor’s Commission for Cohesion. Nazir was awarded an OBE for his work with the CPS and involvement with local communities.

Andy Brennan QPM

Andy Brennan was a Deputy Director in the National Crime Agency and prior to this, a senior police officer in the West Yorkshire Police where he held positions as the Head of the Homicide and Major Enquiry Teams and Head of Professional Standards and Counter Corruption Unit. He was awarded the Queens Police Medal for services to policing and the public in 2012.

Janette Harkess

Janette Harkess is Director of External Relations for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and was Head of Media for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. A former journalist who worked in senior roles across a range of titles, Janette is also an Honorary Vice President of the Journalists’ Charity.

David Hutton

David Hutton spent 22 years as a senior leader in secondary schools, initially as Deputy Head and then as Head. He represented fellow headteachers on Suffolk’s Schools’ Forum, chaired the Governing Body of a Special School, and was a founder member of the Ipswich Opportunity Area Board. He is also a qualified Ofsted Inspector.

Helyn Mensah

Helyn Mensah is a barrister specialising in intellectual property law at 33 Bedford Row chambers. She has experience in a broad range of intellectual property matters and has advised a number of well-known domestic and international clients. In addition to her practice, Helyn sits as a member of the Strategic Governance Panel to the new English non-household water retail market, and chairs its General Data Protection Regulation Committee.

Asmita Naik

Asmita Naik is an independent consultant on international development and human rights following a career at the United Nations in Geneva in the 1990s. She serves as a magistrate and on various professional regulatory bodies. She co-authored a 2002 landmark report which put the issue of sexual exploitation by aid workers on the global agenda and has been involved in measures to strengthen oversight of the aid sector since then.

Andrew Pettie

Andrew Pettie has worked as a journalist and editor for newspapers, magazines and publishers including the Telegraph Media Group where he was the Executive Head of Culture, EMAP, the BBC and Encyclopaedia Britannica. He is now a consultant, contributing editor and writer.

Mark Payton

Mark Payton is an editor and journalist with 30 years of specialist publishing experience. He was editorial director at Haymarket Consumer Media and now works as compliance consultant for the Trust Project, an international consortium of news organisations working towards greater transparency and accountability in the global news industry.

Miranda Winram

Miranda Winram is Chair of the IPSO Readers’ Panel and former Head of Strategy and Insight and Board Member of Forest Enterprise. She was a non-exec member of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Fitness to Practice committee and is currently a public appointee to the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee for the North East.

Peter Wright

Peter Wright is Editor Emeritus at Associated Newspapers and was was formerly Editor of The Mail on Sunday. He is a member of the Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company nominations committee and was a member of the Cairncross Review into the future of journalism.