Rosemary Agnew took up the post of Scottish Public Services Ombudsman on 1 May 2017, leaving office in 2025. Immediately prior to this she was the Scottish Information Commissioner (2012-2017).

Since 2001, Rosemary has held various roles in relation to public sector complaints, including with the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and the Local Government Ombudsman in the UK.

Rosemary's career has seen a committment to transparent, sustainable improvement in Scottish public services - most recently seeing complaints and what is learned from them as an integral part of the improvement landscape.

Lynn Bradley is an accountant with more than 30 years’ experience of working in the Scottish public and private sectors. She was formerly the Head of Finance for West Dunbartonshire Council, where her responsibilities included local tax collection. More recently, she was Director of Corporate Programmes & Performance with Audit Scotland. She is a former chair of CIPFA in Scotland and a former chair of the Local Authority Accounts Scotland Advisory Committee. She is currently a University teacher in the Adam Smith Business School at Glasgow University, where she specialises in audit, risk and control.

Lorna Gibbs is the Deputy Director for Scottish Government’s Improving Public Engagement Division. The division is responsible for overseeing the accurate, effective and transparent engagement with the public and Members of the Scottish Parliament through correspondence, Freedom of Information requests, complaints and Parliamentary Questions. Lorna has worked in the public sector for most of her working life and has been in Scottish Government since 2001. She has undertaken a wide variety of roles in Scottish Government including health, public service reform, resilience, fire reform, further and higher education and was also the Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland agency through a period of significant change and reshaping its mission to better balance public protection and rehabilitation.

Heather has worked in information-related fields for her entire career since 1985, initially in public and subsequently commercial sector roles before forming  HJBS Ltd in 2003, firmly believing that too often technology rather than organisational and societal need was driving information management, governance and use in the digital world. She helps her clients to manage their information as a strategic asset, to maximise value, minimise risk and support service delivery and business improvement.

Qualifications

• 2018: Certificate in Managing Data Protection Compliance with distinction
• 1986: Post Grad MA in Library and Information Management, University of Sheffield
• 1984: MA Hons in History, (2:1) University of Glasgow

Vocational Awards, Membership and Positions

• Trustee of Scottish Council on Archives (current)
• Member of BSI IDT/002/17 Archives/records management sub-committee (current)
• Records Manager of the Year, Records Management Society 2008
• Fellow of the Information and Records Management Society, 2013
• Accredited member of the Information and Records Management Society

Experience
2003 to date: Managing Director, HJBS Ltd – information governance consultancy providing range of services to a wide range of public and third sector organisations including

• Strategy, policy and procedural development
• Information and process review, audit & improvement
• Information architecture & information/records life-cycle management
• Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) implementation
• Training, culture and change management
• Information assurance & compliance support including information legislation – FOISA RM Code of Practice, Data Protection, Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011 – industry standards, regulation & legislation, commercial contracts and internal policy

1991-2003: Information and Knowledge Manager, DataCAD/ISI Group Plc (Computer Aided Design and Document Management Systems and Services company);

1986-1991: Trainee and Assistant Librarian, Renfrew District Libraries

Fiona is one of the most highly-regarded lawyers in Scotland for public, parliamentary and administrative law. She has a deep working knowledge and expertise across a range of legal areas including public and regulatory law, data protection, freedom of information, human rights, corporate governance and parliamentary affairs.

With a background in both contentious and non-contentious matters, she is highly experienced in a wide range of sectors, with a particular focus on education as well as the public sector.

She has in-depth knowledge and first-hand insight of how Governments and Parliaments work on a day-to-day basis, alongside extensive experience of legislative procedures and public sector governance.

She has worked in the Scottish Parliament, UK Parliament and the US Senate in legal and political roles, and in higher education. She was a member of the Scottish Government’s Human Rights Leadership Task Force and sits on the Law Society of Scotland’s sub-committees on constitutional law, human rights, privacy law and its freedom of information working group.

Fiona is ranked by Chambers in Band 1 for both Administrative & Public Law and Parliamentary & Public Affairs. She is ranked within Legal 500’s Hall of Fame for Parliamentary & Public Affairs, and as a Leading Individual for Education Law.

I am an information governance professional providing expert consultancy and training services. I deliver consultancy and training in all aspects of information governance including, data protection and records management. I also provide guidance and advice on getting the best in information governance out of your technical assets; including Microsoft 365.
I have vast and recent experience having worked most recently as a Data Protection Officer and Information Governance Lead with the Care Inspectorate a regulator in Scotland; and Head of Information Governance in the National Crime Agency. I have led and supported consultancy contracts for private and public sector clients to assess their information governance maturity and make prioritised recommendations for improvements based on risk versus resource assessments and deliver them.

A demonstrated history of working in government with enhanced security clearance levels. Skilled in Government, Law Enforcement, GDPR/Data Protection, Records Management, Intelligence, Emergency Planning.
Information professional with a Certificate in Data Protection, Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Information and Records Management from Northumbria University.

Don't take my word for it here is a summary of some feedback; all clients have rated their overall experience as excellent:

On my work as a lead consultant:

Rachel was excellent in the delivery of all stages.
A great blend of knowledge and experience
An ability to engage all delegates and keep three long sessions lively and energised.
Feedback from all delegate colleagues was positive.

And here is some feedback when I was working as a contractor:

Rachel worked exceedingly well with the customer,
Rachel completed all deliverables in a timely manner;
Rachel responded very quickly to all queries;
Rachel was very thorough all all responses and engagement

And some lovely general feedback to end on.....

"I would love to work with Rachel again!"