Baroness Kate Lampard CBE
Chair of the Inquiry
Baroness Lampard is the Chair to the Inquiry. Her appointment was announced by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay, on Monday 4 September 2023.
Baroness Lampard is a former barrister and has worked as an independent consultant undertaking investigations and management consultancy, primarily for public sector services. She is experienced in leading high-profile government reviews, including the NHS investigations into Jimmy Savile and investigations into the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship service. She undertook investigations into allegations of abuse at Yarls Wood and Brook House immigration removal centres.
Previously, Baroness Lampard has also been a non-executive Director at the Department of Health and Social Care and served on the board of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Baroness Lampard has also been the Chair of South East Coast Strategic Health Authority, Vice Chair of the South of England Strategic Health Authority, Vice Chair of the Financial Ombudsman Service Limited, and acted as interim Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody. She was Chair of Invicta NHS Trust.
Baroness Lampard was previously the Chair of GambleAware and is a trustee of the Royal Horticultural Society. She is also a member of the House of Lords.
Kate Ward
Secretary to the Inquiry
Kate Ward is the Secretary to the Inquiry. Her role is to support and advise the Inquiry Chair and act as Chief of Staff to the Inquiry team.
Kate is a member of the senior civil service. She has wide-ranging relevant experience to this Inquiry, including a role as Deputy Secretary on a previous public inquiry, and expertise in promoting improvements to mental health policy and delivery. She has also worked on the frontline as a nurse.
Kate is passionate about and has extensive experience in supporting patients, families, and healthcare professionals to have their voices and experiences heard by policy makers and the Government.
Kate is supported by a highly skilled Secretariat team.
Catherine Turtle
Solicitor to the Inquiry
Catherine Turtle is the legal advisor to the Inquiry. Her role is to advise the Chair and the Inquiry team on any legal issues which may arise.
Catherine has extensive experience of working with inquiry teams, stakeholders and witnesses and was previously Deputy Solicitor to the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
Catherine has a particular interest in mental health and in assisting the Inquiry in making workable recommendations to improve patient safety and care.
Nicholas Griffin KC
Counsel to the Inquiry
Nicholas Griffin KC has been appointed as Lead Counsel to the Inquiry. His role includes the presentation of evidence to the Inquiry, which he will do with his team of experienced barristers.
Nicholas has practised extensively in major public inquiries for over twenty years, leading teams of lawyers following events of public concern and sensitivity. He is head of the Inquests, Inquiries and Public Law team at his barristers’ chambers, and works in a wide variety of investigations and cases, including at the intersection of criminal and public law. He also has experience in a series of public and charity appointments.
Rebecca Harris KC
Counsel to the Inquiry
Rebecca Harris KC is a key figure in the Counsel team. Her role includes providing advice to the Chair and Inquiry team on matters of law, evidence and procedure, and assisting Lead Counsel in the presentation of evidence to the Inquiry.
Rebecca has extensive experience in crime, and regulatory law, working on high-profile and complex cases, particularly in healthcare. Rebecca appears regularly at inquests involving issues of clinical care and management. She undertakes independent investigations and reviews, and sits as a member of a specialist safeguarding panel in sport.
Rachel Troup
Counsel to the Inquiry
Rachel Troup is a key figure in the Counsel team. Her role includes providing advice to the Chair and Inquiry team on matters of law, evidence and procedure, and assisting Lead Counsel in the presentation of evidence to the Inquiry.
Rachel has substantial experience in criminal and regulatory law, as well as in complex investigations, inquests and public inquiries. She was lead junior counsel to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
Independent Assessors
The role of an Independent Assessor is to provide advice and subject area knowledge to the Chair of an Inquiry. Assessors are experts in their own field who provide expert knowledge, often on a recurring basis and as part of the Inquiry team, to help the Chair meet the Terms of Reference.
The purpose of such assessors within the Lampard Inquiry will include (but not be limited to):
- Supporting the Chair from a clinical perspective in her work, for example providing advice and information on particular clinical topics within their expertise.
- Undertaking relevant investigative work with the Inquiry team and informing decision making where appropriate. This may include providing a clinical expert view on whether care within any cases being investigated was safe and appropriate, and how care could have been improved.
- Providing advice and support regarding recommendations for the Chair’s final report.
At the discretion of the Chair, where expert opinion is central to a key issue to be determined or recommendation to be made, she may ask the advice of the Assessor to be shared with Core Participants.
Appointment of the Independent Assessors
Following a rigorous application process, the Chair has appointed three individuals to act as Independent Assessors for the Inquiry. These are all highly skilled individuals with knowledge and experience within their respective areas of mental health who will inform the Inquiry and the Chair on important aspects of its work. All assessors have significant frontline experience of working with mental health patients.
Dr Nicola Goater
Dr Goater has worked as a Consultant Psychiatrist for over 20 years in areas including crisis, inpatient, intensive care, assessment and community teams. She has significant experience in Crisis Teams, establishing a team in 2003, and working on key research in the area.
She is currently the Responsible Officer for West London NHS Trust and works clinically in Early Intervention in Psychosis, as well as acute psychiatry. Dr Goater has worked as a Locality Clinical Lead, Clinical and Educational Supervisor, and Clinical Director. From 2019-2024 she was the Trust’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Caldicott Guardian as well as Chair of the Trust’s Mortality Review and Medicines Optimisation Groups. She acted as Chief Medical Officer for the Trust in 2020/21.
She wishes to use her knowledge and experience from Crisis and other clinical settings, at interfaces, in teams, organisational roles, and systems in order to contribute to this important process, and to learning.
Mick O’Driscoll
Mick is a retired Registered Mental (Health) Nurse (RMN) with 30 years’ experience of working in both junior and senior clinical roles within NHS acute adult mental health services. His various job roles as a staff nurse, matron, clinical nurse specialist, Associate Director of Nursing and Clinical Director, kept him close to the clinical area he most enjoyed – acute inpatient wards. He also developed and led the training of many nursing, medical and occupational therapy staff in his area of specialist interest – understanding suicidal behaviour and risk. In 2014 he was awarded an MBE for services to mental health nursing.
Mick considers there to be many contributing factors to the tragedy of suicides in mental health services. The scale and commitment of the Lampard Inquiry gives him hope for a greater understanding of how we make our services safer.
Dr Elizabeth Walker
Dr Walker qualified as a doctor at St George’s Hospital Medical School in 1995 and has worked as a psychiatrist since 1997. She has been a General Adult Consultant Psychiatrist, working in the North West of England, for the last 15 years. Her area of expertise is in continuity of care, having been responsible for the care of her patients through both community and hospital settings. She also plays an active role in medical education (e.g. training students and junior and senior doctors) and management.
Dr Walker is excited about having a role in this inquiry, in order to help improve mental health care for current and future patients and their families.
The Chair may wish to appoint additional assessors over the course of the Inquiry as she sees relevant.
The Inquiry has also published a protocol on the role and appointment of independent assessors which sets out further information.
