Sir Christopher William Kelly, KCB (born 18 August 1946) is a former senior British Civil Servant who was the Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and Chairman of the

NSPCC The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity. History Victorian era On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpudlian businessman Thomas Agnew was inspired by a visit to the New Yor ...

Early life

Born in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, Kelly is the son of Dr. Reginald Kelly (1917–90), a former President of the

Association of British Neurologists The Association of British Neurologists is a professional organisation founded in 1932 and expanded to include overseas membership in 1937. The Association produces guidelines for the treatment of neurological conditions. Members At 31 December ...

. He attended the independent

Beaumont College Beaumont College was between 1861 and 1967 a public school in Old Windsor in Berkshire. Founded and run by the Society of Jesus, it offered a Roman Catholic public school education in rural surroundings, while lying, like the neighbouring Eto ...

. He studied Economics at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

and the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

Civil Service career

His first senior appointment in the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

started when he was appointed Private Secretary to the Financial Secretary in 1971, a post he held until 1973. From 1978 to 1980 he was Secretary to the Wilson Committee of Inquiry into Financial Institutions. He held various other appointments in the

, including Director of Fiscal & Monetary Policy (1994–95). He was the Head of Policy Group in the

Department of Social Security The Department of Social Security (DSS) was a governmental agency in the United Kingdom from 1988 to 2001. The old abbreviation is still often used informally. Advertisements for rented accommodation used to describe prospective tenants who wou ...

from 1995 to 1997. He was the

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior civil servant of a department or ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are the non-political civil ...

to the

Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their ow ...

from 1997 to 2000, while Frank Dobson and later

Alan Milburn Alan Milburn (born 27 January 1958) is a British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Darlington from 1992 to 2010. He served for five years in the Cabinet, first as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 1998 to 1999, a ...

were the Secretary of State.

Post Civil Service career

A report written by him, and published in July 2004, looked into the agencies which dealt with Soham murderer

Ian Huntley The Soham murders were a double child murder committed in Soham, Cambridgeshire, England on 4 August 2002. The victims were two 10-year-old girls, Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Aimee Chapman, who were lured into the home of a local resident an ...

and why 'alarm bells' did not ring sooner that he should not be allowed to work with children. Sir Christopher Kelly became the Chairman of the

in 2002, and in January 2005 became Chairman of the

Financial Ombudsman Service The Financial Ombudsman Service is an ombudsman in the United Kingdom. It was established in 2000, and given statutory powers in 2001 by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, to help settle disputes between consumers and UK-based b ...

, serving until January 2012. On 5 December 2007, Kelly was chosen by the

British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As moder ...

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony ...

to become the

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...

of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. In October 2010 he was appointed chairman of the King's Fund. In December 2012 he was appointed chairman of the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (RGSB), starting in April 2013. He is a Non-executive member and chairs the Oversight Board of the Office of Budget Responsibility. He is a senior independent non-executive director on the board of the Co-op Group, chairing the board of the insurance group, and is a member of the Advisory Board to the Institute of Business Ethics.

Recognition

In 2001, he was created a

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

Personal life

He married Alison Durant in 1970 in

St Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it merge ...

, and they have two sons and a daughter. He lives in north London.

References

External links

Appointment as Chairman of the Financial Ombudsman Service

The Kelly Review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Christopher 1946 births Living people Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Health British civil servants Civil servants in HM Treasury Civil servants in the Department of Social Security Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath People from Bromley Alumni of London Business School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Manchester National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children people Member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life