Suzi Leather

Dame Susan Catherine Leather, DBE, DL (born 5 April 1956 to 31 July 2012. She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in January 2006.

Education She was educated at St Mary's, Calne, Tavistock School, and Exeter University where she received a BA degree with honours in Politics in 1977, followed by a BPhil degree in social work. She then took an MA degree in European politics in 1978 from Leicester University.

Leather was dubbed the "quango queen" in the popular press.

In April 2013, she took the unpaid position of the independent Chair of the Plymouth Fairness Commission.

Achievements As Chair of Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, Leather was praised for her hard work and transformative effect on the body. Guardian journalist Sarah Boseley wrote: "Nobody disputes that Leather has turned the HFEA around through her intelligence, commitment and personality." Others say the key achievement was in the way the commission carries out its basic regulatory work, with processes becoming more efficient, the website upgraded, guidance made clearer and engagement with the sector and partner agencies improved, all done in a time when resources were declining. During her tenure at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, she faced opposition for stating that a child's absolute need for a father figure was "anachronistic" and out of step with "changes in society". Jack O'Sullivan, of Fathers Direct, which campaigns for the rights of fathers, said that "while discrimination against single and lesbian women was wrong, the benefits of a father figure were proven by scientific studies". added to the traditional list of "charitable purposes" for which charities can be established (the prevention or relief of poverty, the advancement of education, the advancement of religion, and so forth) a requirement that their activities should be carried on "for the public benefit"; and it required the Charities Commission to determine how it would be established that the public benefit was being served. In pursuance of this requirement, in 2009 Leather instigated an investigation into private schools in order to determine whether non-profit education providers should continue to be accorded charitable status automatically. She stated she could not "see why charitable status was always merited".

Specifically, it was decided that, while providing education is a charitable purpose, doing so only in exchange for an economic fee does not meet the requirement that the purpose is carried on for public rather than private benefit. A fee-paying school could nonetheless deserve charitable status, for example if it offered bursaries, or provided teaching or coaching children from surrounding schools, or otherwise contributed. In July 2009, five private schools in the North West of England had been investigated and it was concluded that two of the five gave insufficient benefit to the public and had therefore failed the proposed test. These school would lose their charitable status in a year's time "unless they gave out more bursaries", but these schools were allowed to keep their charitable status in 2010 after re-addressing their public benefit.

The Independent Schools Council successfully challenged the controversial "public benefit" test, at a tribunal hearing which cost the Commission £185,000 in legal costs. Leather later expressed regret over the focus on bursaries, but said that most of the guidance had been upheld. and of drafting the "public benefit" test under Labour Party instructions. Nevertheless, upon her departure from the Charity Commission, Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin gave credit for her "courage and tremendous public service". including her own remuneration package of £104,999 a year for a 3-day week as head of the Charity Commission.

Family Leather lives in Exeter with her husband, Professor Iain Hampsher-Monk, and their three children (one son and two daughters).