The Members of the Panel were appointed following an open competition process. None of the Panel Members are practising lawyers. They bring together a diverse range of skills, expertise and experience.
Panel members
Tom Hayhoe (Chair)
Tom Hayhoe has spent most career of his in corporate strategy, consumer marketing, and governance roles in healthcare.
He has extensive experience of professional regulation as a panel chair with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. He currently chairs the Taxation Disciplinary Board and is an external assessor for the College of Policing. After recently completing a 12 month appointment as Covid Counter Fraud Commissioner, he is currently Chair of the NHS Counter Fraud Authority.
He has an MBA from Stanford University. He spent many years in the private sector working as a management consultant with McKinsey, The Brackenbury Group and the Chambers and in retail management with WH Smith and chairing the board of video game retailer Gamestation. He served as a non-executive director of NHS bodies alongside his commercial roles before becoming chair of West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust in 2010 and then chairing West London NHS Trust between 2015 and 2023.
Location: London
Adhir Ramdarshan
Adhir is an experienced regulation and compliance professional with close to 10 years of senior leadership and delivery across the public and private sectors. Adhir currently acts as the Director of Regulation for Smart DCC Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Capita plc. Between 2017 and 2022, he served as the Deputy Director of Regulation at Royal Mail, responsible for leading its UK regulatory strategy and policy. Before that, Adhir held a range of roles at Ofgem alongside a secondment at the ACCC – Australia’s competition regulator and national consumer law champion.
Location: London
Dr Dan Newman
Dr Daniel Newman is a senior lecturer in law at Cardiff University with extensive research expertise on access to justice, legal aid and the legal profession. He writes on both criminal justice and social welfare law. His books have included Legal Aid Lawyers and the Quest for Justice, Justice in a Time of Austerity, and Experiences of Criminal Justice. He is currently writing Legal Aid and the Future of Access to Justice. He edited Leading Works in Law and Social Justice, and is currently editing Leading Works on the Legal Profession, and Access to Justice in Rural Communities. He has published two dozen peer reviewed academic journal articles, including in leading generalist journals such as Legal Studies and Modern Law Review. He edits the book series, Perspectives on Law and Access to Justice, for Bristol University Press. He has worked on the Legal Aid Census, the largest survey of legal aid lawyers ever conducted in England and Wales, published by the Legal Aid Practitioners Group. He is currently working on a project looking at remote access in the advice sector for the Access to Justice Foundation. His work on access to justice has been cited in the UK and Welsh parliaments, and he has appeared as an expert on access to justice on TV and radio and in newspapers.
Location: Cardiff
Michael Mack
Michael Mack is CEO of the Family Mediation Trust, one of the UK’s leading publicly funded mediation charities, supporting families through separation and succession. He also serves on the Family Mediation Standards Board, shaping professional standards and ensuring high-quality, accessible support across the sector.
Known as “The Rural Consultant,” Michael advises farming families and rural enterprises on succession planning, conflict resolution, grant funding, and business development. His practical approach combines a deep understanding of tax, legal frameworks, and human dynamics in family-run businesses.
A former Nuffield Scholar, Michael has held leadership roles in local government, education and central government programmes. He has delivered national workshops, spoken at major industry events, and provided bespoke coaching to support multi-generational farm transitions. Michael has been a magistrate in Norwich for nearly 20 years, bringing valued insight into justice processes and the lived experience of court users.
On the Legal Services Consumer Panel, Michael contributes lived expertise on access to justice, regulatory standards, and consumer experience—particularly for families and rural small businesses during periods of change. He champions clear, inclusive services and better policy.
“I’m committed to ensuring legal standards empower families—whether navigating separation, succession, or court. Regulatory change must focus on people, not just processes.”
Michael lives in rural Norfolk with his family, immersing himself in its beauty and community life. He remains actively involved at North Walsham Rugby Club and enjoys exploring the coast, countryside.
Location: Norfolk
Richard Spencer
Richard is a former BT director whose career in the UK and abroad spanned commercial business development, strategy, partnerships, corporate social responsibility, organisational culture and leadership development. Since 2018 he has held a portfolio career, serving as an advisor to Ofcom until November 2024 as a member of the Communications Consumer Panel and Advisory Committee for Older and Disabled People. He was the Senior Independent Director and Deputy Chair of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) from 2018 until 2025, and now serves as a non-executive director on the Board of Essex Partnership University NHS Trust (EPUT), who provide a range of mental health and community health services across Essex.
Richard has also been a trustee of two Colchester-based charities providing supported housing to homeless people, his current involvement focusing particularly on young adults who have found themselves in crisis. He holds degrees in Theology and History, and an MBA from Warwick University.
Location: Essex
Liz Coll
Liz is a consumer policy analyst and founder of Connected Consumers, where she has she has established projects on the use of technology in consumer law enforcement, digital rights, and generative AI.
She has advised national governments, financial institutions, consumer organisations, global think tanks and international standards bodies on the impact of powerful, social technology on consumers and markets. She has been certified by the Competition Appeal Tribunal to lead a UK class action against Google for breach of competition law and excessive pricing in the Google PlayStore.
Liz established the first global digital programme at Consumers International, after leading digital consumer policy work at Citizens Advice and at Consumer Futures, the UK’s statutory consumer body. She is a regular speaker, panellist and author on core consumer issues including e-commerce, the platform economy, consumer data, IoT and AI. She began her career at the London School for Economics’ Centre for Analysis Risk and Regulation and from there joined sustainability non-profit consultancy Forum for the Future. She has a BA in Politics and Government from the University of Sussex and an MSc in Political Sociology from the LSE. She also sits on the board of Local Democracy think tank, LGIU International and is a strategic advisor to BSI’s consumer and public interest network.
Location: Brighton
Ayub Khan
Ayub Khan FRSA FCMI is the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Harlow. He has more than 20 years’ senior leadership experience across the third sector, public service and education, with expertise in governance, strategic planning, financial management and organisational change.
Before joining Citizens Advice Harlow, he held a number of senior roles, including Executive Director of the Further Education Trust for Leadership, Chief Executive of Rochester Diocesan Multi-Academy Trust, and senior leadership positions at the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and Connexions South London.
He also brings extensive trustee and non-executive experience and currently serves as Vice Chair of Haringey Sixth Form College and as a Governor at Harlow College. Previous appointments include serving as a trustee of YMCA England & Wales and as a member of government task forces on the Careers Profession and the National Careers Service.
Location: Essex
Sabrina Basran
Sabrina is an experienced regulatory, consumer and competition professional, having worked at the UK Competition and Markets Authority for close to 10 years. She has held several roles within the CMA, including in Markets and Mergers, where she’s led work across markets including focusing on the experience of vulnerable consumers across essential service markets. She has been a Director of Consumer Protection since 2021, where her role includes leading enforcement cases and overseeing the Consumer Pipeline team, responsible for assessing intelligence and identifying new areas of work.
Sabrina has a background in consumer and business-focused research, and led consumer research on behalf of the CMA as part of its 2016 Legal Services Market Study. She has a BSc Hons in Sociology from the University of Nottingham and an MSc in Sustainability and Management from Royal Holloway, University of London.
Location: London
