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Member biographies

Updated 11 October 2024

Professor Mark Watson-Gandy, OBE, Chair

Barrister Three Stone Chambers

Areas of expertise:

• law
• leadership
• public speaking

Professor Mark Watson-Gandy OBE is Chair of the Biometrics & Forensic Ethics Group.

He is a barrister at Three Stone Chambers, a leading commercial chancery chambers. A former junior counsel to the Crown, he was called to the English Bar in 1990. He is also a member of the Eastern Caribbean Bar and the DIFC (Dubai) Bar. He is one of the legal services champions for the UK government’s “GREAT” campaign.

He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster and at the Université de Lorraine.

Mark was the founder of Kids MBA whose course teaches core business skills to 12 to 15 year old children which is presently provided, through its partnership with the awarding body, ABE Global. Forbes Magazine recently singled it out as one of the “five leading global programmes supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs”.

Until September 2020, he was chair of Mental Health First Aid England, a spin out from the Department of Health charged with raising the nation’s mental health literacy. As at his departure, MHFA was rated by the Financial Times as one of the top 1000 fastest growing SMEs in Europe with 1 in 68 of this country’s adult population having undertaken mental health first aid training.

He is Chancellor of the British Association of the Order of Malta. He is a past Master of the Scriveners Company. Since 2022, the Catholic Herald has included him on their list of the UK’s top 100 Catholic leaders.

Professor Anne-Maree Farrell

Chair of Medical Jurisprudence, Edinburgh Law School

Areas of expertise:

• health law
• ethical decision making and evaluation
• law and ethics of (emerging) technologies
• law and ethics of human tissue / forensics

Professor Anne-Maree Farrell is Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at Edinburgh Law School.

Her academic research expertise lies generally in health law, policy and ethics, with a specific focus on the law and ethics of human tissue, public health, online safety and redress, and mental health. Professor Farrell is also Director of the Mason Institute, an interdisciplinary research centre based at the University of Edinburgh, which focuses on ethics and law at the interface between health, medicine and the life sciences at a national and global scale.

She has recently undertaken work for the UK Infected Blood Inquiry and the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry, as well as providing expert advice on health policy and law reform issues for the UK, Scottish and Northern Ireland Departments of Health.

Prior to entering academia, she was a lawyer in private practice and is admitted to legal practice as a solicitor in England and Wales, Ireland and Australia.

Professor Richard Guest

Professor of Biometric Technologies, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton

Areas of expertise:

• biometric systems technical implementation
• standardisation and testing
• ethics and data

Richard Guest is Professor of Biometric Technologies in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton.

He has an internationally recognised and sustained research record in applied artificial intelligence, biometric systems, security, image processing and feature pattern recognition, securing over £5 million of external funding over the past 25 years. He is an appointed member of the UK Home Office Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group advising the government on the use of biometric technologies. He has had active involvement with ISO / IEC standardisation processes in the area of biometric data interchange, used in worldwide deployments.

He also has a sustained management record. Before joining Southampton, he held numerous senior leadership posts at the University of Kent including deputy divisional director, head of school, deputy head of school and faculty director of internationalisation. He has significant research leadership as principal investigator of several large national and international projects including EU Marie Słodowska-Curie ITNs, EU and UKRI projects.

Giles Herdale

Director, Herdale Digital Consulting Ltd

Areas of expertise:

• policing (including knowledge of national policing policy and structures)
• digital intelligence and investigation techniques
• technology
• data ethics
• partnership

Giles Herdale has been involved in intelligence and digital investigation for many years, working at the National Policing Improvement Agency, College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council, where he set up and ran the Digital Investigation and Intelligence Programme (2014 to 2017) to transform policing capabilities to address the growing threat of online crime.

He has also had experience in the private sector, providing digital forensics and data analytics services to law enforcement, and cyber and information security services to corporate and not-for-profit organisations.

In recent years he has worked independently including supporting the National Crime Agency with TRACER, a multi-agency and multi-disciplinary team looking at emerging technologies, their impact on investigative capabilities and sponsoring innovation to mitigate threats and exploit opportunities. 

Since 2022 he has supported the work of the national violence against women and girls taskforce with developing a strategic response to online and tech-enabled VAWG. This includes the first strategic assessment of police understanding of the challenge, and building partnerships with civil society, academia and industry, leading to creation of a joint policing and TechUK VAWG steering group.

Giles has a long interest in ethical use of intelligence and data that dates back to his work developing the Management of Police Information Code of Practice following the Bichard Inquiry into the Soham murders. This led to his involvement in setting up the Independent Digital Ethics Panel for Policing (IDEPP) in 2014, a panel of experts drawn from a range of disciplines looking at ethical frameworks for using data in investigations. He was co-chair of IDEPP from 2018 to 2020 and has retained a close interest in data ethics in policing, advising NPCC, the College of Policing, NCA and the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation on development of ethical frameworks.

He came to policing from government where, as a fast stream civil servant, he worked on legislation and policy development. In the 1990s, Giles was Assistant Private Secretary to the Policing Minister and Secretary to the Home Office Board. He went on to specialise in transnational organised crime and intelligence sharing.

In the early 2000s, he was the first Whitehall policy lead for human trafficking and organised immigration crime, developing UK policy and legislation. This included negotiating international collaboration through the UN, Council of Europe, European Union and Europol, and the first joint investigation team involving the UK in 2002.

When working in the National Centre for Policing Excellence (subsequently NPIA from 2003 to 2010), he led the team responsible for implementing the National Intelligence Model in policing. He also initiated and led the development of the first published guidance for covert policing.

Matt James

Associate Professor Bioethics and Medical Law

Areas of expertise:

• bioethics
• ethics of new and emerging technologies
• ethical decision making in health and technology research
• application of ethical guidelines in policy and practice

Matt James is Associate Professor in Bioethics and Medical Law at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London where he is Director of the Centre for Bioethics and Emerging Technologies (CBET). He is Course Lead for the MA Bioethics and Medical Law programme.

Matt has a background in bioethics and public policy having worked within Westminster and Whitehall for over 15 years. He was previously a Parliamentary researcher for a shadow Minister for International Affairs before working as a senior researcher for several Westminster based think tanks focusing on the ethical and social implications of emerging technologies.  

This work has included involvement with the EU FP7 funded project ‘Project RISE’ (Rising pan European and International Awareness of Biometrics and Security Ethics). This was a 36-month international initiative addressing the implications of rising use of biometrics and related technologies. The project aimed to develop and ensure continuity to international dialogue already initiated by the international conferences on biometrics and ethics hosted by the EC Directorate-General Research and the US Department of Homeland Security Privacy Office.  Engagement in the field of biometrics has continued, with Matt developing research interests in the evolution of smart cities and the related ethical and social implications for humanity.

David Lewis

Former Deputy Chief Constable of Dorset and Devon and Cornwall Police, and previous National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for ethics and national lead for forensics performance and standards. Now undertaking a portfolio of roles in governance, regulation, ethics and leadership development.

Areas of expertise:

• law enforcement
• forensics
• ethics
• regulation
• leadership

Dave is a senior leader with a portfolio of interests in ethics, governance, regulation, and leadership. He manages a range of roles across sectors and undertakes freelance work.

He served for 30 years as a police officer, retiring as Deputy Chief Constable of Dorset. During his career he undertook many roles, including Senior Investigating Officer, Area Commander for East Berkshire, Chief of Staff at the Association of Chief Police Officers, and Regional Chief Officer for the Southwest of England.

Dave led the national ethics portfolio and was forensics performance and standards lead for the National Police Chiefs’ Council. In those roles, he oversaw the development of digital ethics in policing and the implementation of accreditation and quality standards across forensic disciplines. He was also a member of the Forensic Science Advisory Council.

More recently, he gave evidence to House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee’s inquiry into emerging technologies, contributing to their 2022 report: ‘Technology rules? The advent of new technologies in the justice system’. He has provided guidance to a national forensic organisation on the development of a digital ethics framework and has been part of a team advising a European government on the development of a national forensic science strategy.

Dave currently heads up the Cricket Regulator for England and Wales and is a director of the Human Tissue Authority. He is a member of the Home Office Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group, an associate of the College of Policing, and chairs and facilitates leadership programmes for the Windsor Leadership Trust.

Professor Penney Lewis

Criminal Law Commissioner

Areas of expertise:

• law reform
• criminal law, evidence and procedure
• medical law
• medical ethics, including donation ethics, criminal ethics, genomics ethics
• research ethics

Professor Lewis is Commissioner for Criminal Law at the Law Commission.

Since 2020, she has completed projects on the protection of official data (now in the National Security Act 2023), search warrants, misconduct in public office, hate crime, corporate criminal liability (now in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023), confiscation of the proceeds of crime, modernising communications offences and intimate image abuse (the latter two now in the Online Safety Act 2023).

Her current projects include criminal appeals, contempt, evidence in sexual offences prosecutions and defences for victims who kill their abusers.

Previously she was Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics at King’s College London. As an academic, her research was both comparative, covering multiple jurisdictions and different legal systems, and interdisciplinary, intersecting with history, psychology, ethics, medicine and science.

In the area of criminal evidence and procedure, her work focused on prosecutions for historic childhood sexual abuse and the law governing corroborative and supporting evidence. She has also published widely in the field of medical law, with a particular interest in the relationship between the criminal law and medicine. Professor Lewis also has extensive experience as a member of national and local ethics committees in the fields of organ donation, genomics, research and clinical ethics.

Elisabeth Mackay

Digital trust and cybersecurity consultant

Areas of expertise:

• AI governance and risk management
• data ethics
• privacy
• cyber security
• technology innovation

Elisabeth Mackay is a digital trust and cyber security consultant. She currently works for PA Consulting, assuring governance, risk management and compliance for innovative data analytics and AI projects across the policing, security, defence and private sectors.

Elisabeth previously worked as a civil servant for the UK government, holding roles relating to cyber policy research, information management and governance, legal compliance and cyber security engagement.

Elisabeth is certified CISSP by the ISC² and CIPP/E by the IAPP. Elisabeth is Vice-Chair of the ADS Digital, Cyber and Resilience Group for AI.

Professor Sarah Morris

Deputy Head of ECS (Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise), University of Southampton

Areas of expertise:

• artificial intelligence
• open source intelligence
• contextual analysis of digital artefacts
• data privacy
• digital forensics
• evidence handling
• system security
• digital ethics

Professor Sarah Morris is a leading expert in digital forensics and the Deputy Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. With over 16 years of academic and investigatory experience, her interests include investigating unusual devices, digital data recovery, data privacy, and document analysis. She has performed digital investigations for a wide range of global clients including law enforcement, civil, corporate, media organisations and celebrities.

An advocate for public engagement, Sarah champions inclusion in computing and electronics. She is also an active volunteer for charities and public initiatives supporting victims of control, bullying, and mental health for digital forensic investigators.

She serves on national and international advisory boards, including the Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group and the UK Police Science Council under the Office of the Chief Scientific Advisor for Policing at the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Frequently featured in media outlets such as the BBC and CNN, Sarah is a recognised authority in her field​ combining academic theory with investigative practice.

Dr Nóra Ni Loideain

Senior Lecturer in Law and Director of the Information Law & Policy Centre at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Areas of expertise:

• data privacy law
• European human rights law, EU law, public law and criminal justice
• thought leader on AI and / or technology and science policy matters

Dr Nora Ni Loideain is Senior Lecturer in Law and Director of the Information Law & Policy Centre at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. Her research focuses on EU law, European human rights law, and technology regulation, particularly within the contexts of privacy and data protection. Nora holds BA, LLB, LLM (Public Law) degrees from the National University of Ireland, Galway and a PhD in law from the University of Cambridge.

Previously, she has held lecturing positions at King’s College London and the University of Cambridge and visiting fellowships at the Australian National University and University of Cape Town. In 2024, Nora was appointed Editor-in-Chief of leading journal International Data Privacy Law (Oxford University Press). Prior to her academic career, Nora was a legal and policy officer for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions of Ireland and clerked for the Irish Supreme Court.

She has consulted widely on her areas of research and published on topics including AI digital assistants, health data, facial recognition, smart cities, and cross-border transfers. With her work being cited by leading institutions including the Alan Turing Institute, BBC, Chatham House, the United Nations, and the UK House of Lords.

Professor Niamh Nic Daeid

Professor of Forensic Science and Director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, University of Dundee

Areas of expertise:

• research ethics, process and governance
• forensic science practice
• science communication
• leadership in forensic science research

Professor Niamh Nic Daeid is an award winning chartered chemist and authorised forensic scientist. She is a Professor of Forensic Science and Director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee, developing robust scientific methods and science communication for the justice systems.

She has been involved in forensic science education, research and casework for over 30 years.

She is a past chair of the European working group for fire and explosion investigation and the INTERPOL forensic science managers symposium. She sits on the scientific advisory board of the International Criminal Court, is a strategic partner for the International Forensic Strategic Alliance and acts as an expert forensic advisor to the UN.  

She has published over 200 peer reviewed research papers and book chapters, 5 edited books and holds a research grant portfolio in excess of £30 million.  She is regularly involved in the public communication and engagement of science making forensic science accessible across a wide range of audiences.

Dr Malcolm Oswald

Director, Citizens Juries c.i.c.

Areas of expertise:

• bioethics
• data governance
• public engagement

Malcolm is Director of Citizens Juries c.i.c., a social enterprise running citizens’ juries, a method to enable a cross-section of the public to be informed and make public policy recommendations.

He worked as a specialist in information governance for 18 years, specifying requirements and advising on legal and ethical requirements for national NHS systems using patient data.

Malcolm is a member of several committees, including the NICE Appeals Panel, and of a University of Manchester Research Ethics Committee.

He has a PhD in Bioethics and Jurisprudence, is an Honorary Research Fellow in Law at the University of Manchester and a guest lecturer on bioethics, public engagement and information governance.

Professor Marion Oswald, MBE

Professor in Law, Northumbria University and Senior Research Associate, the Alan Turing Institute

Areas of expertise:

• law
• technology
• data
• ethics
• policing

Professor Marion Oswald, MBE is Professor of Law at Northumbria University, Newcastle and Senior Research Associate at the Alan Turing Institute.

She researches the interaction between law and digital technology and has a particular interest in the use of AI and innovative technology in policing and national security. She is Principal Investigator of the UKRI-funded 4-year Responsible AI UK Keystone Project ‘PROBabLE Futures – Probabilistic AI Systems in Law Enforcement Futures.’

She is the founding chair of the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner and West Midlands Police Data Ethics Committee. Marion was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours list 2022 for services to digital innovation.

Professor Emeritus Charles Raab

Professor Emeritus School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh

Areas of expertise:

• information policy
• governance and regulation (eg privacy, data protection, surveillance, identification, FOI, data ethics, accountability)

Charles Raab is Emeritus Professor, University of Edinburgh; formerly Professor of Government.

• visiting positions at academic institutions abroad
• academic background in political science and public policy, within broad social science and humanities frames of reference
• Co-Director of Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy (CRISP)
• former Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute (ATI), co-Chair of ATI Data Ethics Group
• member of Police Scotland’s Independent Ethics Advisory Panel, Digital Identity Scotland Expert Group, Europol Data Protection Experts’ Network
• co-chaired Independent Digital Ethics Panel for Policing (IDEPP)
• teaching and funded research on privacy, data protection, surveillance, governance and regulation, data ethics, ‘smart’ environments, AI, identity and identification, trust, accountability, law enforcement, FOI, and democracy
• author of a large number of articles, chapters and books Charles Raab, School of Social and Political Science (ed.ac.uk)
• general editor of Routledge Studies in Surveillance book series
• advice and reports for many public bodies in the UK, EU and elsewhere
• evidence to UK Parliamentary committees
• specialist adviser to the House of Lords Constitution Committee (2007-2009) for the inquiry, Surveillance: Citizens and the State, HL Paper 18, Session 2008–2009
• Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences; Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• received the outstanding achievement award of the Surveillance Studies Network in 2024

Professor Tom Sorell

Professor of Politics and Philosophy at University of Warwick

Tom trained in philosophy and has decades of experience in public engagement concerning ethics.

Professor Sorell:

• has a particular interest in ethical issues arising from the use of security, including, policing technologies
• is the author of 9 books and editor or co-editor of 13 collections of papers
• is the author of over 150 peer reviewed papers in philosophy, interdisciplinary technology studies, moral theory and applied ethics

Areas of expertise

• AI ethics
• data ethics
• ethics of counter-terrorism
• policing ethics
• research ethics

Other current roles

• Member, West Midlands Police Data Ethics Committee
• Chair, West Midlands Police Ethics Committee
• Member, Information and Governance Committee, NHS Safe Data Environments
• Expert Fellow,  Sprite Network Plus in Cybersecurity

Previous roles

• John Ferguson Professor of Global Ethics, University of Birmingham
• Co-director, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex
• Faculty Fellow in Ethics, Harvard University
• Tang Chun-I Visiting Professor in Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2013)

Professor Denise Syndercombe Court

Professor of Forensic Genetics, Kings College London

Areas of expertise:

• full understanding of forensic identification methodologies, historic and developing, including ethical considerations
• forensic scientist with practical casework expertise in new technologies, including DNA sequencing, statistical aspects of DNA mixtures and epigenetic applications as applied to forensics
• expert in kinship and genetic genealogy

Scientist, geneticist, statistician, academic, editor and author of a prize-winning medical textbook and published author of peer reviewed scientific publications.

Trained in systematic reviews and evidence-based approaches of medical and scientific publications. From 1990 was Senior Lecturer in Forensic Haematology at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and in 2012 she moved to King’s College London where she is now the Professor of Forensic Genetics. 

She has more than 30 years of experience in scientific research, forensic evidence examination and DNA interpretation in relationship and criminal evidence with a sound knowledge of the civil and criminal justice process, including court presentation as an accredited expert witness. 

She runs an ISO17025 laboratory that specialises in kinship investigation and is an active researcher in new molecular techniques for human identification. She has an active interest in promoting science to a wider audience via television, radio and external lectures.

Dr Peter Waggett

Director of Research IBM UK Ltd, Director LBM Ltd

Areas of expertise:

• biometrics
• developing international standards for biometrics
• emerging technology and digital innovation
• research development

Dr Waggett is an image processing expert and Director of Research at IBM UK Ltd.

He was the biometrics and testing lead for the UK Visa Waiver Project delivered to the UK Government.

He currently leads the IBM activity associated with the UK’s Hartree National Centre of Digital Innovation (HNCDI). The HNCDI delivers innovative projects and proof of concept systems for UK industry using quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence. 

Dr Waggett is editor of the ISO Biometrics Vocabulary project (ISO 2382-37) and Chairs the International Standards Organisation (ISO) SC17 committee responsible for cards and devices for personal identification.  SC17 is responsible for the standards governing bank cards, passports and driving licences worldwide.