Revision of Revenue Scotland Board from Wed, 04/05/2017 - 10:07

Revenue Scotland Board

Appointments to the board of Revenue Scotland were announced by Deputy First Minister John Swinney on 31 December 2014. The new board members are Dr Keith Nicholson, who will act as chair, John Whiting, Jane Ryder, Lynn Bradley and Ian Tait.

Dr Keith Nicholson

Dr Nicholson is an internationally recognised scientist and award-winning company director with more than 30 years’ experience in statistical analysis and data modelling. Before moving full time into consultancy he was a professor working on environmental and energy systems and held positions in universities in Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Denmark and Scotland. He currently runs an independent consultancy providing strategic advisory services in cyber security, IT and telecommunications technology. Keith’s business and specialist background in transactional websites, cyber security and technology will be of particular value to Revenue Scotland.

John Whiting CBE

John Whiting is the Tax Director of the UK’s Office of Tax Simplification (OTS), a role he has held since the OTS was established in 2010; he has also been a non-executive director of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) since April 2013. In addition to his part-time OTS position, he was until 2013, the first Tax Policy Director of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT). He was a member of the High Level Implementation Group and is now a member of the Deputy First Minister’s Tax Consultation Forum. He has also served as a member of the first-tier Tax Tribunal. John was awarded a CBE in 2016 for services to tax simplification and an OBE in 2008 for services to the tax profession.

Jane Ryder OBE

Jane Ryder is qualified as a solicitor in England and Scotland and for 12 years was a partner in specialist maritime solicitors Boyd Jameson WS, in Edinburgh. She now specialises in corporate governance and regulation across the public, private and third sectors. From 2003-2011 she was the first Chief Executive of the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) where she successfully established the new regime for the regulation of charities in Scotland. Recent non Executive roles include public appointments to the Board of the Marine Management Organisation and as Deputy Chair of the UK wide Seafish Industry Authority. She was appointed as the first Chair of Historic Environment Scotland in January 2015.

Lynn Bradley

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.

Ian Tait

Ian Tait is Director of Investment and Hydro Nation at the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (the Commission). He is a regulatory specialist and has advised the Scottish Government on the development of regulatory structures. Ian has extensive experience of data analysis using high-level metrics in order to monitor performance and drive improvements for customers and the environment. His previous posts include Strategic Planning Manager and Transmission System Manager at Scottish and Southern Energy (formerly Scottish Hydro-Electric).

Minutes of Revenue Scotland Board

Please note, these are edited versions of the original Secretary’s minutes of Board meetings. In terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, we consider some information originally minuted to be exempt in terms of one or more of the following sections of the Act: s29 (Formulation of Scottish Administration policy etc.); s30 (Prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs); s33 (Commercial interests and the economy); s35 (Law enforcement); s38 (Personal information). In all cases where we have redacted information we have taken into consideration the public interest test and decided that the balance lies in favour of non-disclosure at this time.