Dame Suzi Leather has been appointed as the new chair of the Charity Commission. She takes over from Geraldine Peacock on 1 August 2006. Leather will step down as chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), a role she has occupied since 2002, and from the School Food Trust, where she has been chair since its establishment in 2005.

Previously, Leather was the founder deputy chair of the UK Food Standards Agency and in recent years has chaired the Exeter and District Community NHS Trust as well as the Health Forum, an inter-agency partnership promoting public health in North and East Devon.

Leather said: "Charities are uniquely important to our society and the Commission has a vital role to play in supporting them, both individually and collectively. Ensuring that charities deliver public benefit in exchange for the advantages which come with charitable status is set to become an increasingly key responsibility of the Commission and the next few years will be particularly significant for the charitable sector and the Commission as it implements the proposed new legislation."

Minister for the Third Sector, Ed Miliband MP, said he was looking forward to working with Leather on a range of issues, not least the Charities Bill. Charity Commission chief executive Andrew Hind highlighted Leather's wide experience of voluntary sector issues and a track record in innovation and organisational change.