Year Ahead Conference: The Future of Public Protection

Alison Farrar, Project Lead, Operation Jigsaw. Alison is Operations Manager at National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team. She joined the team from Anglesey Trading Standards where she worked for 15 years, having previously run a bakery and managed an independent designer wear business.  She is joint Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) Lead Officer for Property and Lettings, has been Lead Officer for Consumer Education for 15 years and as part of this role attended Select Committee for Tenant Fees Act 2019 at the House of Commons.  Alison was lead on communications for Trading Standards Wales for 10 years, is a regular on BBC1’s Defenders UK and has worked on national and regional projects such as National Consumer Week and Scams Awareness Month. She is Chair of the Consumer Empowerment Alliance, sits on the CTSI Equality and Diversity Working group and is Chair of the Welsh branch of CTSI. Alison runs the Jigsaw project which is funded directly the MHCLG to support Local Authorities in preparing for Renters’ Rights Act.

Annie Albon, Head of Environmental Health and Regulatory Services, Dartford Borough. Annie is the current Chair of the Association of Chief EHO’s for England. This group has been set up to ensure that EH Managers  who work in English Local Authorities have a voice in legislative/national policy decisions that will affect their work programmes.

Annie qualified as an EHO in 1989 at Thames Polytechnic (Now University of Greenwich) and has been passionate about the work of this profession ever since. She gained a Masters degree in 1997 in Food Safety and Control.

She worked in various London Boroughs – Bromley, Greenwich and Newham, before becoming Head of EH at Sevenoaks Council in 2005. Annie went on to be one of the first pioneer managers to set up a shared EH service with a neighbouring authority. She successfully managed the Sevenoaks Dartford EH Partnership for 9 years. She now works full time as the Head of EH and Regulatory Services at Dartford Council.

Chloe Fletcher, Head of Policy and External Affairs, Chartered Institute of Housing. Chloe brings a wealth of experience across housing, public policy and stakeholder engagement with a strong track record in policy development and lobbying on council housing and finance. Prior to joining CIH in October 2025, Chloe held senior roles at HQN and the National Federation of ALMOs as well as London Councils. Chloe is passionate about housing policy and enabling the housing profession to make a positive difference to people’s lives.

David Perry, Legal Director, Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). David is a Legal Director at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) with over 10 years’ experience advising on complex and high-profile consumer enforcement investigations, as well as the CMA’s other competition and markets functions. David has been heavily involved in developing the CMA’s new approach to consumer enforcement under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 as well as several of the CMA’s recently opened direct enforcement investigations. David is also the Legal Director for the Office for the Internal Market. David started his career working as an in-house lawyer at a local authority.

Emma Foy, Industry Lead for Local Government, TechnologyOne. Emma Foy is the Industry Lead for Local Government at TechnologyOne, where she champions digital transformation across councils and public sector organisations. She brings deep expertise in modernising services and helping local authorities unlock the power of connected, cloud‑based technology. With a background of over ten years of being Section 151 in various local authorities, she now works closely with leaders to streamline operations and drive meaningful community outcomes. Emma is known for her collaborative approach, her commitment to innovation, and her passion for helping local government build more resilient, efficient, and future‑ready services. 

Fiona Inston, Public Health Associate, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and Vice Chair of the Association of Chief Environmental Health Officers. Fiona Inston is a Public Health Associate in the North West and Vice Chair of the Association of Chief Environmental Health Officers. She began her career as an Environmental Health Officer and is now a senior leader within a Public Health team. Fiona is focused on reducing health inequalities and improving health outcomes. She works collaboratively with local authorities, commissioned services, healthcare providers, and voluntary organisations to translate public health priorities into practical action. She is particularly interested in prevention, health promotion, and using data and evidence to inform decision making. Fiona brings a people centred approach to her work in public health.

Fran McClosky, Chief Executive Officer, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). Fran McCloskey joined CIEH in 2022. Fran is a qualified chartered accountant who has worked in the charity sector for over 20 years, and before that was with KPMG's mergers and acquisitions team. As an Executive Team Member for many years in several organisations, Fran has a lot of experience in Corporate Strategy and Performance as well as Transformation.

Graeme McDonald, Managing Director, Solace and Solace in Business. Graeme McDonald is Managing Director of Solace and Solace in Business and is responsible for the overall strategic direction and management of the organisation.

Prior to joining Solace Graeme had spent over fifteen years working in local government. He has worked for London Borough, Metropolitan and District councils; his final role was as the Director of Policy and Performance at the London Borough of Ealing. He also has experience in roles within social care, housing and environmental services, as well as a range of corporate and change management roles.

Graeme focuses on leadership development; influencing policy across central government and ensuring the very best of the sector is shared and built upon. He is particularly keen to develop the sector’s long term leadership capabilities and has developed a number of programmes aimed at firmly embedding high quality professional leadership in local public services.

Helen Atkinson, Senior Environmental Health Officer, Wakefield Council. Helen Atkinson is a Senior Environmental Health Officer at Wakefield Council and her role is Primary Authority Account Manager, dealing with all Environmental Health issues for Wakefield’s Primary Authority partner businesses including retail, manufacturing, logistics and distribution, hospitality and leisure sectors. She has worked in all areas of environmental health and is a member of the CIEH Food Advisory Panel.  Helen started her career in retail management then the logistics/distribution sector before completing the NEBOSH Diploma in 1996 and studying at Salford University to become an EHO.

Ian Workman, Chief National Officer, Homes England. Ian joined Homes England in 2022, having worked for over 30 years in the banking industry. He spent much of his career at Barclays in both Retail and Commercial Banking and was most recently the Managing Director for SME/Business Banking Relationships for the UK.

After leaving Barclays, Ian worked with Recognise Bank, a challenger bank, and Yorkshire Building Society. Since joining Homes England 3 years ago as an Executive Leader he has oversight of the Help to Buy Mortgage Portfolio, Building and Cladding Safety Schemes  and the Social and Affordable Housing Grant Programme. Ian completed his Master's Degree in Equity & Diversity in Society in 2024 and is also a Non-Executive Director at Newbury Building Society.

James Armitage, Director for Public Protection, Regulatory Services Partnership (Merton Richmond & Wandsworth), Chair, Association of London Environmental Health Managers. James Armitage is the Director for Public Protection, leading strategic initiatives delivered by the Regulatory Services Partnership (RSP) to safeguard communities and uphold public safety standards across Merton, Richmond and Wandsworth boroughs in Southwest London. With extensive experience in regulatory compliance, risk management, and enforcement, James oversees critical services that protect health, wellbeing, and consumer rights. His leadership focuses on collaboration, innovation, and delivering high-quality outcomes for residents and businesses. In his role as Chair of the Association of London Environmental Health Managers, James works closely with partners to ensure robust frameworks for environmental health, trading standards, and licensing, driving continuous improvement and resilience. Committed to transparency and accountability, he champions policies that promote trust and confidence in public protection services. James has in the past worked for a variety of London local authorities including Southwark and Westminster Councils as well as eight years in the private sector delivering services under contract to Barnet, North Tyneside and the Five Councils Partnership. 

Jessica Merryfield, Head of Policy & Campaigns, Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI). Jessica is a Chartered Trading Standards Practitioner, CTSI Trainer and joined CTSI in April 2024 to take up the position as Head of Policy and Campaigns, with two decades’ experience from a variety of regulatory-based roles across the public and private sector to help CTSI campaign and lobby for changes needed in the consumer protection and wider Trading Standards space.  As background, Jessica graduated with a degree in Environmental Health, before making the switch to Trading Standards, and was awarded the Diploma in Consumer Affairs and Trading Standards (DCATS) by CTSI. It is believed that Jessica is the first person in the history of both the UK Environmental Health and Trading Standards professions to hold both qualifications.

John Herriman, Chief Executive Officer, Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI). John has worked in a wide variety of sectors, ranging from telecoms through to education and local government, and this had given him a deep understanding of the importance of effective regulation. His career has also given him a rich diversity of perspective on how different sectors operate, as well as how they can work together successfully for the benefit of wider society. Driven by a strong sense of public duty John is passionate about the role the trading standards profession plays protecting the public and supporting business.  He is incredibly proud to be leading CTSI at a time when this work has never been more important. John is a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, supporting initiatives to bring communities closer together across the capital. He has studied extensively in different fields including business, education, engineering, psychology and law.  Additionally, he holds a number of related professional fellowships and trustee roles. 

Jonathan Eatough, Deputy Director – Operations and Governance, The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). Jonathan's responsibilities include oversight of the OPSS Local Authority Unit (LAU) who work to co-ordinate effective regulatory and policy activity between OPSS and local authorities. The LAU team are also responsible for the day to day management of Primary Authority.

He also oversees the operational functions of OPSS including the operation of OPSS Teddington Test Labs, commissioning testing capacity, DDAT and data governance, estates and health and safety functions.

A lawyer by background, Jonathan joined the Civil Service in 2020 after being the senior lawyer (leading on governance) in a number of local authorities in England.

Katie Pettifer, Chief Executive, Food Standards Agency (FSA). Katie joined the FSA in July 2021 as Director for Strategy and Regulatory Compliance and was appointed Interim Chief  Executive in August 2024, before taking the role permanently in January 2025. The FSA is a non-ministerial department which makes sure that food is safe and is what it says it is,and helps to make food healthier and more sustainable.

She was previously the Public Policy Director at Ofcom, where she played a major role in shaping Ofcom’s work on issues like improving mobile and broadband coverage across the UK and working with the Government on new regulation to protect people from harmful content online.  She also sponsored Ofcom’s diversity and inclusion strategy. Before that she spent two decades in Whitehall departments, mainly in social policy roles.  She has held Senior Civil Service roles in the Ministry of Justice, the Cabinet Office and the Northern Ireland Office.

Marie Brousseau-Navarro, Deputy Commissioner and Director for Health, Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. Marie has drafted and leads on the Commissioner's health and well-being mission to facilitate a transformation in the way we keep people healthy, with a greater focus on prevention and the long term. This is to help public bodies to work together to tackle the root causes of ill health, addressing health inequalities and increasing investment in prevention. Marie is the team lawyer and gets involved in all key projects. She helped set up the office in 2016 together with the first Commissioner.  As Deputy Commissioner since 2021 and former Chief Operating Officer, she makes sure the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner walks the talk and operates as efficiently and sustainably as they can. Marie is ‘adopted Welsh’ originally from France having lived in Wales for over 25 years.

Simon Allsop, Managing Consultant, Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy. Simon’s professional experience has been gained in a range of environments including as a Senior Manager at KPMG,  Director of Finance for Derbyshire Police and Fire and now as a Managing Consultant at CIPFA. Simon worked across local and central government on financial and resource management, shared services and improvement programmes designed to provide sector support through the NAO and Audit Commission.

Simon is the Delivery Director for MHCLG reviews and has experience of developing and delivering financial resilience and turnaround plans and leading teams on reviews and programmes. He has extensive experience of reviewing financial management arrangements, financial plans and reviewing capability and capacity across local authority support departments. He made a significant contribution to the development of Value for Money and assurance methodologies and measures of productivity and performance. Simon leads on supporting S114 notices, reviewing savings plans; and providing continued assurance roles as a member of Improvement Boards and supporting leadership teams. 

Stephen Vickers, Joint Chief Executive, Torfaen County Borough Council and Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council. Stephen leads the first federated council partnership in Wales - a pioneering model of collaborative local government. Under his leadership, both councils have also become the first in Wales to be designated as Marmot Councils, committed to reducing health inequalities through evidence-based, equity-focused policy and practice.
Stephen came into social care and local government later in his career, having originally trained as an engineer. His professional journey spans a diverse range of sectors, including hospitality, retail, and consultancy, before transitioning into public service.

He has held several influential roles, including Non-Executive Director for Herefordshire General Practice and Respiratory Innovation Wales, as well as Visiting Lecturer at De Montfort University, where he specialised in law, policy, and evidence-based practice.

Stephen currently serves as the SOLACE Lead for Health and Social Care in Wales and is the Chair of the National Connecting Care – Social Care Programme Board.

Valerie Simpson, Chair of ACTSO and Assistant Director of Environmental Health & Regulatory Services, Hammersmith & Fulham Council. Valerie began her regulatory career in Licensing and Trading Standards. Since qualifying as an Inspector of Weights and Measures and working across six London Boroughs, she has had senior management responsibility for Trading Standards, Environmental Health and other regulatory and corporate services. She is Chair of the London Strategic Regulatory Network, which supports collaboration and public protection. Working closely with regional co-ordinators her strategic leadership has helped to provide a voice for London on regulatory issues and to support professional development opportunities for officers working in Trading Standards, Environmental Health and Licensing teams. As a director and trustee of the Association of London Environmental Health Managers (ALEHM) and a member of London Trading Standards’ regional policy group, she provides strategic input and support to both professions. Valerie also leads ACTSO’s Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group to help promote, support and embed EDI best practice in the profession’s core work

William Roberts, Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). William Roberts is the Chief Executive of the Royal Society for Public Health. Previously William has been a senior leader in the NHS across roles in public health, commissioning, strategy, transformation and planning. He is a registered nurse who has worked in both hospital and community services, and as a nurse specialist in tuberculosis and HIV.

William is a Non-Executive Director of Housing 21 and was previously Deputy Chair at Terrence Higgins Trust and a Non- Executive Director of POBL a Welsh housing and care provider. He is the Chair of the Swimming and Health Commission and is a member of Movember’s Global Men's Health Advisory Committee.

 He brings a wealth of experience across public health and inequalities from the healthcare, charity sector, social care, housing, local government and further education.