The committee and their interests
The Committee
Deborah Taylor, Chair
Her Honour Deborah Taylor was called to the Bar in 1983, and practiced as a barrister until 2005 at Crown Office Chambers in London, where her common law/commercial practice included medico-legal cases.
In 1998 Deborah was appointed a Recorder, and in 2005 she was appointed a Circuit Judge sitting in crime. Since 2013 she has also sat in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) and in the High Court Queens Bench Division and Administrative Court.
In 2017 she was appointed a Senior Circuit Judge, Resident Judge at Southwark Crown Court and Recorder of Westminster. She has also been a member of judicial working groups on the modernisation of the criminal justice system and courts.
Between 2011-13 Deborah was a Judicial Appointments Commissioner, and between 2013-17 Chair of the Irene Taylor Trust (Music in Prisons).
She has for many years been involved in the governance of the Inner Temple, and was Chair of the Scholarships Committee and the Temple Women's Forum, before being elected Reader in 2019, and Treasurer of Inner Temple in 2022.
Dr Stephen T Webb
Dr Webb is a Consultant in Intensive Care at Royal Papworth Hospital Cambridge. His clinical, education and research interests lie in cardiothoracic intensive care, severe acute respiratory failure, advanced heart failure and cardiogenic shock, clinical adult and quality improvement. Dr Webb’s management roles at Royal Papworth Hospital include Responsible Officer and Deputy Medical Director. He is also Human Tissue Authority(HTA) Designated Individual and Partner Organisation Member of the Council of Governors for Cambridge University Hospitals.
Dr Webb’s current national roles include Special Advisor to the UK Intensive Care Society Council, Chair of the UK MEDUSA Injectable Medicines Guide Advisory Board, Chair of the UK Critical Care Leadership Forum and Regional Committee Member of the Advisory Committee for Clinical Impact Awards (ACCIA).
Dr Webb graduated in Medicine from Queen's University Belfast in 1999 and undertook postgraduate specialist medical training in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine in Northern Ireland and Cambridge. He was appointed as Consultant in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine at Royal Papworth Hospital Cambridge in 2008.
In the past Dr Webb has worked with several healthcare organisations and held various roles. Previous positions include President of the UK Intensive Care Society (ICS),Clinical Lead of the Eastern Academic Health Science Network (EAHSN) Patient Safety Collaborative and Member of the East of England Clinical Senate Council. Dr Webb has also worked with the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), Care Quality Commission(CQC), Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM), Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC), The Health Foundation, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcomes and Deaths (NCEPOD).
Barbara Larkin, Committee member
Barbara has been an MPTS tribunal member since 2014.
Barbara began her banking career in Banbridge, Co Down in 1986. She graduated from University College, Dublin in 1993 with an honours degree in Financial Services and continued in banking, following a move to Northwest England in 1996. There she worked at a number of global banking groups across a variety of disciplines, including business banking; credit approval; project management; corporate lending and restructuring.
Moving in a new direction in 2013, Barbara went into education, bringing her experience and expertise in banking and financial services to her roles as a part-time lecturer and as a governing body member and committee chair, in two further education colleges.
Since 2014 she has also undertaken the office of chief invigilator of external exams for a grammar school in her area.
Barbara is a patron of a chamber music group and an amateur musical society of which she is a former member. A lifelong singer, she is a soprano in two choirs. When not engaged in singing and musical pursuits, she relishes cooking for family and friends. Always keen to gain new skills, she is committed to learning to swim this year. She enjoys walking the trails in the countryside and mountains that surround her locality, which is an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Gill Edelman, Committee member
Gill originally qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. She worked in several hospitals and progressed into senior management roles before leaving the NHS for the voluntary sector.
Gill has been CEO of several charities including Kings College Hospital Charity and I CAN, the children’s communication charity. As an interim CEO, she helped establish the Centre for Ageing Better and managed the closure of the Macfarlane Trust one of the charities set up by the Department of Health to support people infected with contaminated blood products and their families.
She has been a trustee of several charities and was Chair of the Governance Hub, a national programme funded via the Cabinet Office and Capacity Builders to improve standards of governance across the voluntary and community sector. She has also worked as an independent voluntary sector consultant. She supported the Chair of the Charity Commission in establishing its new governance arrangements following implementation of the 2006 Charities Act and has supported strategy and governance development in a wide range of charities.
Gill has held several non-executive roles in healthcare including as a NED in the National Patient Safety Agency. She also served as a NED at Barnet PCT, as a Lay Member for Patient and Public and Patient Engagement at Surrey Downs CCG, as Chair of the Individual Funding Review Panel, and more recently as Chair of Quality and Performance in Surrey Heartlands, ICS.
Gill currently sits as a Lay Panel Member for the Nursing and Midwifery Council and is a board member of the General Osteopathic Council.
Simon Mackenzie, Committee member
Simon graduated from Edinburgh University in 1983 and was appointed a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care in 1992. In addition to his clinical work, he has held local and national leadership roles. He became Medical Director of University Hospitals Division of NHS Lothian in 2007 where he introduced a multi-professional Hospital at Night team, delivered European Working Time Directive compliance for trainees, and met the 4-hour standard. He was seconded to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as the Health Foundation Quality Improvement Fellow 2012-2013. On return from Boston, Simon was the clinical lead for Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s review of acute hospitals with high mortality rates. In 2015 he was appointed Medical Director at St George’s Hospital in London and subsequently was Acting Chief Executive for a year as the Trust tackled quality and financial issues. From 2017 to 2020 he worked for NHS England/Improvement supporting poorly performing systems and then leading the Southeast region’s critical care response to the Covid 19 pandemic. From 2017 to 2022 he was a member of Southeast London CCG Governing Body.
Simon was a GMC Performance Assessor from 1997-2007 and a Team Leader from 2001. He has been an MPTS Tribunal Member since 2012. He chaired Scotland’s intensive care audit group for 6 years and was President of the Scottish Intensive Care Society 2008-2010. He has chaired several national working parties, most recently the NICE Atrial Fibrillation Guideline Development Group. Simon has published 29 papers and 3 book chapters and lectured internationally on quality improvement. He was an examiner for both UK and European Diplomas in Intensive Care, honorary Senior Lecturer in Edinburgh, and honorary Professor at St George’s.
Simon is married with 3 adult children and 2 grandchildren. His interests include woodwork, sailing, hill walking and running with his first ultramarathon approaching.