Blog: Friday 29th August, 2025 - Paul Turner, LLG President

Dear All

It’s still not quite the end of summer but it feels like the end is cannot far away. As I write it’s sunny but perhaps not what you would call ‘hot’.  

We always used to say that August was a quiet month, but August 2025 has definitely not been quiet at LLG:

• We have been interviewing for our new independent chair. We have made an excellent appointment.  It’s not been announced yet so I can’t share who it is without messing up the Deborah’s carefully constructed comms plan.  It’s enough to say that I am excited to be working with them and I am sure they will do an excellent job of supporting the President (that’s me apparently),  the Chief Executive and the rest of the Board.

• We’ve also been busy working on our plans for a professional body for monitoring officers.  We’ve set up a working group including some of the board and some others to act as a sounding board about what monitoring officers would like their professional body to do for them.  Recognising that not all MOs are in LLG, we’ve also reached out to colleagues from ADSO and are ensuring that colleagues in Wales can be represented.  Like Greater Anglia (my local train company)  things can be subject to short notice delays and cancellations but fingers crossed we should be able to launch at the LLG | Hybrid Governance Conference 2025 which will be held on 28 November 2025 in London.  As you would expect, the professional body will have fantastic governance.  If you have any thoughts on any of this  please email me at president@llg.org.uk.

And finally, if you read the MJ this week you will see an article from Aneeka Sarwar, our Past President, on ‘Staying sensible when legal issues get polarised’.  It’s a thoughtful and interesting article.

That’s all for this month.

Paul Turner

LLG President