Press release

Office of Tax Simplification: Board changes

Paul Aplin OBE appointed as an OTS Board member

The Chancellor has appointed Paul Aplin OBE to the board of the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS), following the resignation of Dame Teresa Graham DBE as a board member.

In addition, in consultation with the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Kathryn Cearns OBE, OTS Chair, has appointed Dame Teresa Graham as a board observer in her role as Chair of ABAB.

OTS Chair, Kathryn Cearns said:

I am hugely grateful to Dame Teresa for her enormously significant contribution to the OTS over the last 10 years and am delighted she will be continuing to share her wisdom and expertise as an observer. I am also delighted to welcome Paul as a member of the board. He brings a wealth of experience and understanding of tax and related technological developments which will broaden and deepen the expertise available to the board.

Further Information

The OTS was established in 2010 to provide advice to the Chancellor on simplifying the UK tax system and was made a permanent, independent office of HM Treasury in July 2015. It was put on a statutory footing in the Finance Act 2016.

Paul Aplin is a member of HMRC’s Administrative Burdens Advisory Board and the 2018 President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He was a highly regarded candidate in the recent OTS Board member recruitment process.

Dame Teresa Graham was a founder member of the OTS board when it was formed in 2010, and Chairs HMRC’s Administrative Advisory Board.

The OTS legislation limits the number of independent board members to four, who sit alongside the Chair, Tax Director and HM Treasury and HMRC representatives.

The OTS’s framework document has been updated to reflect the unpaid observer role and to provide for the independent board members to receive remuneration.

The members of the OTS Board, and its observers, are now:

  • Kathryn Cearns OBE (Chair)
  • Bill Dodwell (Tax Director)
  • John Cullinane
  • Kathleen Russ
  • Professor Judith Freedman CBE
  • Paul Aplin OBE
  • Beth Russell (HM Treasury)
  • Ruth Stanier OBE (HMRC)
  • Dame Teresa Graham DBE (Observer)

Press enquiries only please contact Julie Gillespie, OTS Press Officer 03000 585028

Published 8 March 2021