Transparency data

Natural England register of board members' interests 2025

Updated 16 October 2025

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/natural-england-register-of-board-members-interests/natural-england-register-of-board-members-interests-2024

This register lists current interests held by Natural England board members. It includes:

  • directorships, board memberships or other positions
  • employment
  • company shareholdings
  • significant landholdings
  • political activity
  • membership of professional societies and associations
  • lay memberships

Dr Tony Juniper CBE

Remunerated interests

  • Director and employee of TonyJuniper.com Limited

Unremunerated interests

  • Board of Trustees – Cool Earth
  • Member of Council of Trustees - Flora and Fauna International
  • Member - Friends of the Earth
  • Member - Greenpeace
  • Member - RSPB
  • Member - Wildlife Trusts
  • Member - National Trust
  • Member – Butterfly Conservation
  • Environmental Ambassador - Fields in Trust (formerly the National Playing Fields Association)

Marian Spain (ex officio Board member)

Remunerated interests

  • Chief Executive, Natural England

Unremunerated interests

  • Plantlife International
  • Campaign for National Parks
  • National Trust

Cynthia Alers

Remunerated interests

  • Non-Exec Board member - UK Endorsement Board

Unremunerated interests

  • Treasurer to the Board of Charitable Trustees at Buckden Recreation Ground and Village Hall Trust (voluntary role)
  • Investor Relations Society (professional membership)

Professor Mel Austen

Remunerated interests

  • Professor of Ocean and Society, University of Plymouth

Unremunerated interests

  • Director - Carew Wharf Management Company Limited
  • Chair - Partnership of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in North Devon
  • Board Member – Joint Nature Conservation Committee
  • Trustee (company director) and President Elect of the British Ecological Society
  • Royal Society of Biology
  • Marine Biological Association
  • Member - National Trust
  • Member - Royal National Lifeboat Institute

Professor Lynn Dicks

Remunerated interests

  • Professor of Ecology, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge
  • Fellow and College Lecturer in Zoology, Selwyn College, Cambridge

Unremunerated interests

  • Founding Trustee of East Suffolk Trust (EaST)
  • Nature-Based Systems lead and Committee Member for Fenland SOIL
  • Royal Entomological Society Fellow
  • Co-Chair of the Cambridge Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Global Food security
  • Cool Farm Alliance (member of Science Advisory Committee)
  • British Ecological Society
  • Society for Conservation Biology
  • Member - Bumblebee Conservation Trust
  • Member - Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants
  • Member - Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society

Professor Clare Fitzsimmons

Remunerated interests

  • Marine scientist, Senior Lecturer and Postgraduate Degree Programme Director at the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University

Unremunerated interests

  • Board Member - Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Dr Alastair Leake

Remunerated interests

  • Policy Director, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
  • Director, Game & Wildlife Scottish Demonstration Farm
  • Director, Allerton Research & Educational Trust

Unremunerated interests

  • Rutland Agricultural Society, Trustee Director since 15 May 2018
  • Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (Administration) Ltd. Director
  • The Earthworm Society
  • Historic Commercial Vehicle Society
  • Linking Environment & Farming (LEAF)
  • Fellow of the Council of the Royal Agricultural Societies
  • Fellow of the Institute of Agricultural Management
  • Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society of England
  • Honorary Fellow of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany
  • Member of the BASIS Professional Register
  • Chartered Environmentalist, Society for the Environment
  • Central Association of Agricultural Valuers, Environment and Land-use Group
  • Wildlife Estates European Scientific Committee
  • Voluntary Initiative National Steering Group
  • Bracken Control Group
  • SG Rodenticide Monitoring Group
  • Policy Strategy Group

Political activity

  • Coordinator for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Game & Wildlife Conservation

James Scott

Remunerated interests

  • Project Board member, Manydown Project
  • Partnership Board member, Wintringham Project
  • Senior Adviser, Dorrington PLC
  • Group Director of Strategy and Planning for Urban&Civic Estates Limited

Unremunerated interests

  • Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Royal Academy of Art
  • Hurlingham Club
  • Carlton Club
  • The Law Society, Solicitor and Member

Kim Shillinglaw

Remunerated interests

  • Board member - The Natural Environment Research Council
  • Member - Ofcom Content Board
  • Board member - National Highways
  • Non-executive Independent Board Member at DSIT
  • External Director - Britain’s Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS)

Unremunerated interests

  • Board member - Raspberry Pi Foundation

Dame Caroline Spelman

Unremunerated interests

  • Non Executive Director, Commonwealth Games England Board
  • Trustee of Church of England and Chair of Diocese Commission
  • Member of the Conservative Party
  • Trustee of British Horse Society
  • National Trust
  • Royal Society for Protection of Birds
  • Warwickshire Wildlife Trust

Mark Tufnell

Remunerated interests

  • Calmsden Farms
  • Calmsden Estate, Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Unremunerated interests

  • Director of Calmsden Limited
  • Director of Upper Coln Farm & Stud ltd
  • Bare Trustee of Cotswold Conservative Association
  • Trustee of: Calmsden Poor Downs Allotment
  • Trustee of: The Colesbourne Estate
  • National Trust
  • Country Land and Business Association
  • National Farmers Union
  • Royal Society for Protection of Birds
  • Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust
  • British Association for Shooting and Conservation
  • SongBird Survival
  • President of Glos Root Fruit & Grain Society
  • Council member of Three Counties Agricultural Society and Chair of its Risk and Audit Committee
  • Trustee of The Carlie Tufnell Charitable Trust
  • Lead farmer in the Cotswold Farm Cluster group, the cluster is a recipient of funding from the Facilitation Fund
  • Chair of Cotswold Grey Partridge Group
  • Chair of Cotswold Central Hills Deer Management Group

  • Chair of North Cerney Parish Council

  • Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
  • Chartered Institute of Taxation

Political activity

  • Eldest son (Henry) is a Parliamentary member for Labour Party for mid and south Pembrokeshire constituency
  • Resigned membership of the Conservative Party in April 2024

Peter Unwin

Unremunerated interests

  • Director – Yester Park Maintenance Ltd
  • Chair of Chislehurst Golf Club Ltd
  • Aldersgate Group
  • Royal Society for Protection of Birds
  • National Trust
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