Suzi Leather

Chair, Charity Commission from 1 August 2006

Dame Suzi Leather has been chair of the Charity Commission since 1 August 2006.
Just after her appointment, the government passed the 2006 Charities Act, which stated that charities must provide a “benefit to the general public” in order to claim charitable status. Much of her chairmanship has been consumed with determining how the Charity Commission will decide whether a charity provides public benefit.

How this public benefit test will affect independent schools has been the subject of much media scrutiny, and this has earned Leather plenty of personal and professional criticism from those who support the charitable status of public schools. As a former public schoolgirl herself, who educates one of her own children at private school, she had to withdraw from the debate after taking legal advice. Certain factions of the media also like to focus on the fact that she is a glamorous and attractive woman and a career “quangocrat”, as if those attributes automatically preclude her from doing a good job in her current role.

From 2002-2006, she was chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and has also chaired the School Food Trust, the Food Standards Association and the Exeter and District Community NHS Trust.

She has a degree in politics from Exeter University and an MA in European politics from Leicester University. She is an active member of the Labour party.

She was made a Dame of the Order of the British Empire in January 2006.

Her term in office will come to an end in July 2012 and in October she will take up the position of chair of the trustees at LankellyChase Foundation.

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