Rt Hon Peter Riddell is Director, for the Institute for Government. Peter took up the Directorship on 1 January 2012. He was previously a Senior Fellow at the Institute and divided his time with his work for the Detainee Inquiry, a privy counsellor panel looking at whether the British Government was implicated in the improper treatment of detainees held by other countries (a role from which he resigned at the end of last year to concentrate on the IfG).

At the Institute, he co-authored reports on Transitions and Ministerial Effectiveness and has been closely involved in work on political and constitutional reform.

Until mid-2010, Peter was a journalist for nearly 40 years, split between the Financial Times and The Times, where he had been their domestic political analyst and commentator. He has been a regular broadcaster, written seven books and delivered frequent lectures. He chairs the Hansard Society, a non-partisan charity which promotes understanding of Parliament and representative democracy. He will be stepping down from this role in the next few months.

Peter has received two honorary doctorates of literature, is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Political Studies Association and was one of the first recipients of the President’s Medal of the British Academy.