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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills contacts

If you have any comments, queries or problems with the site, please see the contacts here: https://www.gov.uk/bis

Newsroom: key contacts

Members of the public should call the BIS enquiry line on 020 7215 5000.

To contact the press office out of hours (18:00-08:30), call 020 7215 3234/3505.

Management

  • Aileen Boughen - Head of News 020 7215 5972
  • PA to Head of News 020 7215 3701
  • Owen Bassett - Deputy Head of News, Strategy and policy 020 7215 5938
  • Alison MacLeod - Press Secretary to Vince Cable 020 7215 6140
  • Strategy and media planning 020 7215 5361

Business sectors, enterprise, small business and economy, growth, regulation and corporate affairs

Joe Upton - Chief Press Officer 020 7215 5969

This Press Office desk works to Minister for Business and Enterprise Michael Fallon on growth and regulation, business sectors, enterprise, small business and the Shareholder Executive. The desk also provides media support to the Permanent Secretary Martin Donnelly on corporate affairs and is responsible for strategic media planning.

Business sectors

Matt Barker – Senior Press Officer 020 7215 5946

  • Overall responsibility for the desk
  • Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV)

Rebecca Murrell - Press Officer 020 7215 6403

  • Steel
  • Automotive sector
  • Low carbon - renewables
  • Chemicals

Andy Aston - Press Officer 020 7215 6963

  • Manufacturing, excluding steel
  • Aerospace, Marine and Defence
  • Low Carbon - Energy Intensives, Carbon budgets, emissions trading
  • Construction
  • Retail
  • Olympic legacy
  • Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), Environmental regulations

Enterprise, small business and economic development

Jo Fletcher - Senior Press Officer 020 7215 5951

  • Overall responsibility for the desk
  • Banks
  • Business Bank
  • UK Export Finance

Emma Brown - Press Officer 020 7215 5981

Enterprise and SMEs policy, including:

  • Global Entrepreneurship Week
  • Business Improvement programme, including Business Link, http://www.mentorsme.co.uk/ and Business Coaching for Growth
  • BIS interest in prompt / late payment and SME procurement
  • Enterprise education
  • BIS press office liaison with Start Up Britain, SME marketing campaign, etc.
  • Enterprise and small business statistics / research reports
  • Regional Development Agency transition / asset sales
  • Queen’s Awards

Jason Raj - Press Officer 020 7215 5978

  • Access to Finance
  • SME Finance Fitness campaign
  • Funds, including Business Growth Fund and European regional development funding
  • Local Enterprise Partnerships
  • Enterprise Zones
  • Cities Minister
  • BIS local
  • Support on Business Bank
  • Support on UKEF


Growth, regulation, innovation and corporate affairs

Nick Evans - Senior Press Officer 020 7215 3496

  • Day-to-day responsibility for the desk
  • Growth
  • Industrial Strategy
  • Mid-sized businesses

Lucy Bell – Senior Press Officer 020 7215 5361

  • Strategic media planning

Ed Smith - Press Officer 020 7215 5945

  • Regional Growth Fund
  • Support on corporate issues
  • Shareholder Executive and relationship with Land Registry, Met Office and Ordnance Survey

Press Officer 020 7215 5245

  • Media handling for Permanent Secretary
  • Regulation (including the Red Tape Challenge)
  • Corporate issues

Oliver Fry – Press Officer 020 7215 5965

  • Strategic advisor on regulation communications
  • Focus on Enforcement

Higher Education, Further Education, Science, Innovation and skills

Adam Smith – Chief Press Officer 020 7215 5955

This Press Office desk works to Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts and to Minister for Further Education, Skills, and Lifelong Learning Matthew Hancock.

Higher Education, Innovation & Science

Emma Griffiths - Senior Press Officer 020 7215 5982

Strategic oversight of the work of the Higher Education and Science Desk including Government Chief Scientific Adviser GCSA and preventing violent extremism.

  • Innovation

Rebecca Lefort - Press Officer 020 7215 5256

  • Widening participation and teacher quality in HE, including: NSP, student numbers, admissions, UCAS, school engagement and partnerships, NCEE, NSS, OFFA, retention, social mobility, quality, vulnerable people, Science skills and increasing take-up of STEM subjects
  • Information Advice and Guidance including flexible learning, contact hours and value for money
  • High Level Skills including access to the professions, employer engagement, entrepreneurship, enterprise, foundation degrees, internships and graduate employment
  • EU/International/Research including EU policy, modern languages, OECD statistics, the Bologna process, Erasmus student mobility programme and immigration policy, REF

Dan Palmer - Press Officer 020 7215 5303

  • HE Sector Shape and Structure including policy on Higher Education Institutions (financing and governance); Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE – including budget issues);
  • HE White Paper; Education Bill; voluntary giving;
  • better regulation; reducing bureaucracy and degree awarding powers Student Finance Policy and Student Finance Delivery including post 2012 finance reforms, student support policy, tuition fees, bursaries, debt, sale of student loan programme, EU students and ELQ impact. Press Support for SLC Cyber security

Sally Catmull - Press Officer 020 7215 6577

  • Research Councils
  • Public engagement on science, National Science and Engineering Week and other science festivals, Energy Technologies Institute, and R&D tax credits
  • The Government Office for Science including Council for Science and Technology
  • The Office for Life Sciences
  • National Measurement Office
  • Animal testing and the NC3Rs
  • Space policy including the UK Space Agency and the Space IGT


Further Education and Skills

Ashley Rogers – Senior Press Officer 020 7215 5971

  • Overall day-to-day responsibility for the desk

Victoria Heath - Press Officer 020 7215 5950

  • Apprenticeships
  • Traineeships
  • Literacy and numeracy
  • Informal Adult Learning, offender learning, union learning
  • National Skills Academies
  • Work-based Learning
  • Growth and Innovation Fund
  • Sector Skills Councils
  • Industry Training Boards
  • English for Speakers of Other Languages
  • Vocational Reform

Simon Creer – Press Officer 020 7215 5979

  • FE Funding & Finance
  • Engineering
  • 24 plus Advanced Adult Learning Loans
  • UK Commission for Employment and Skills, Employer Ownership Pilot and annual skills audit
  • Rigour and Responsiveness in Skills &FE Reforms
  • NEETs
  • College capital building programme
  • National Careers Service & Life Long Learning Accounts
  • Quality improvement, workforce reform and harnessing technology
  • Bogus colleges and migration
  • Preventing extremism
  • Skills Funding Agency corporate issues

Employment relations, trade and postal issues, consumer, competition, corporate governance and intellectual property

Nic Fearon-Low - Chief Press Officer 020 7215 5078

This Press Office desk works to Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs, Jo Swinson, on postal affairs, employment, consumer & competition, company law, Shareholder Executive, corporate governance and Europe; to Parliamentary Secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills, Lord Younger, on intellectual property; to Minister for Trade and Investment, Lord Green, on trade policy; and to Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, Michael Fallon, on Royal Mail.

Employment relations, trade and postal issues

Josh Coe - Senior Press Officer 020 7215 5943

  • Overall day-to-day responsibility for the desk, and lead on:
  • Postal issues (Henry Tanner provides support on this issue)

Angela Balakrishnan – Press Officer 020 7215 5363

  • Family friendly – flexible working and flexible parental leave
  • European directives including working time directive
  • National minimum wage – policy and enforcement
  • Post Office
  • Export control organisation
  • Trade Policy

Sandra White – Press Officer 020 7215 5937

  • Domestic Labour Law
  • Employment law aspects of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill
  • Employment law review
  • Deregulation - Collective redundancies
  • Dismissal rules – including Beecroft, Settlement agreements and tribunal reform
  • Industrial action and unions
  • TUPE
  • Employment status
  • Workplace rights and enforcement review
  • EAS


Corporate governance, consumer, competition, company law, corporate governance and intellectual property

Henry Tanner – Senior Press Officer 020 7215 5947

  • Overall day-to-day responsibility for the desk
  • Corporate Governance
  • Directors' pay
  • Narrative reporting and audit
  • Employee Ownership review
  • Kay Review
  • Women on Boards review
  • Accounting Directive
  • Corporate responsibility
  • Company law

Syeda Hasnain - Press Officer 020 7215 6245

  • Consumer policy and affairs
  • Consumer Credit and Personal Insolvency
  • midata
  • Community buying
  • Competition matters
  • Grocery Code Adjudicator
  • Product safety
  • Scambusters and illegal money lending

Jayne Scott - Press Officer 020 7215 5080

Responsible for the Intellectual Property Office, including:

  • Patents
  • Trade marks
  • Copyright
  • Designs

UK Trade and Investment

This Press Office desk works to Trade and Investment Minister Lord Green on UKTI activities including overseas trade missions and inward investment.

Alex Hamilton - Chief Press Officer 020 7215 5976

Michael Gibbs - Senior Press Officer 020 7215 1635

Veena Mapara - Press Officer 020 7215 5614

Christina Murphy - Press Officer 020 7215 5245