James Timpson (Chief Executive of the Timpson Group, Chancellor of Keele University, Chair of Prison Reform Trust) has been appointed Minister for Prisons, Parole and Probation in Sir Kier Starmer’s administration.** It is excellent that the new PM is appointing people who have some knowledge of what their departments are supposed to be about.

Even better is the fact that Timpson (who, by the way gets a peerage to be able t be a minister) also knows something about leadership and management – a skill which recently appears to have been woefully lacking. A couple of years ago he posted his guiding principles online, and of course the internet has just resurrected them.

We need a lot more of the appointment of specialists and people who know how to manage. Now let’s have it applied throughout the NHS.

** I was going to say “government” but I was once ticked off by the late Lord Gowrie for this usage. The administration is the monarch’s government, not the Prime Minister’s.