Michael Bichard

Sir Michael Bichard KCB is a former civil servant in the United Kingdom, first in local and then central government. He chaired the Bichard Inquiry into the "Soham murders".

He was Chief Executive of Brent and then Gloucestershire Local Authorities.

In 1990, he became Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency.

In 1995, he was made Permanent Secretary of the Department for Employment; when it merged with the Department for Education (to form the Department for Education and Employment (originally DfE, then DfEE, later DfES), he became Permanent Secretary of the combined department. In this capacity he oversaw the introduction of the Learning and Skills Council to fund further education and apprenticeships. In May 2001 he retired from the Civil Service, when the department was split into the Department for Education and Skills and Department for Work and Pensions. During his time as Permanent Secretary, he introduced several modernising reforms to the Department, notably in bringing its use of information technology and new media up to date. .

He was given a Knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1999.

In September 2001 Bichard was appointed Rector of The University of the Arts London.

David Blunkett, who was at the time Home Secretary, appointed him in 2004 to chair the enquiry into the murders of two 10-year-old girls in Soham.

He has been the non-Executive Chair of RSe Consulting since 2003. RSe Consulting provides strategic and management consulting services to local government.

Bichard was appointed Chair of the Legal Services Commission in April 2005. There he introduced a range of reforming measures aimed at modernising the legal aid system. He was also chair of the educational charity Rathbone. Bichard is due to leave these two roles and take up post as the Director of the Institute for Government in September 2008.

External links

* [http://www.positivelearning.co.uk/files/bichardinquiryreport.pdf The Bichard Report. Retrieved 22/9/2008]
* [http://www.bichardinquiry.org.uk/ The Bichard Inquiry's official site]
* [http://www.legalservices.gov.uk The Legal Services Commission website]
* [http://www.rseconsulting.co.uk RSe Consulting company website]
* [http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk Institute for Government website]