Our team
The Hansard Society’s core team is based at its Albert Embankment office near Westminster. They are supported by researchers and practitioners from across the UK who contribute to the Society’s podcast, quarterly journal, and specialist research and education projects.
Dr Ruth Fox
Director
Ruth's research focuses on parliamentary scrutiny, legislative effectiveness, constitutional reform and public engagement with politics. She is the co-host of the Society's Parliament Matters podcast and co-author of ‘The Devil is in the Detail: Parliament and Delegated Legislation’. She has given evidence on parliamentary reform to numerous select committees and inquiries in the UK and around the world. In 2019-2020 she was BBC Parliament’s commentator during the pivotal Brexit votes and is a frequent contributor to current affairs programmes on radio and television. Her writing has featured in The Guardian, The Times, The New Statesman and The House Magazine. She previously worked for a Member of Parliament and has a PhD in political history from the University of Leeds.
Matthew England
Researcher
Matthew joined the Hansard Society in 2023 to develop the Society’s ongoing research into delegated powers and the system of scrutiny for delegated legislation. He maintains the Society’s legislative monitoring service, the Statutory Instrument Tracker®, and is responsible for drafting our Parliament Matters Bulletin, a weekly analysis of what's coming up in the House of Commons and House of Lords each week. He graduated with a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Oxford in 2020 and an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2021. Before joining the Hansard Society, Matthew worked as a researcher for a Member of Parliament focusing primarily on legislative research.
Richard Greenhill
Development Officer
Richard has been working on membership and project support for the Hansard Society since 2023. Among his responsibilities he curates our weekly Despatch Box Newsletter for members and manages our CRM system. He previously worked in data analysis for a multinational retailer and before that for a political party. He also has experience of governance and IT in local government and financial services, as well as having interned in Westminster for a Member of Parliament. He has longstanding interests in public law and parliamentary scrutiny and has advised on legislative drafting. He studied Mathematics and Social and Political Science at the University of Cambridge.
Tel: +44 (0)203 925 3979 chris.roberts@hansardsociety.org.uk LinkedIn
Chris Roberts
Finance and Administration Officer
Chris joined the Hansard Society in 2023 in a part-time role to support the team with finance, membership and general administration. In his first career he worked for the John Lewis Partnership for 38 years in a variety of IT roles, including programming, support, project management and service management, with a particular specialism in point-of-sale systems. He graduated from the University of Birmingham with a BSc in Pure Mathematics.
Mark D'Arcy
Co-host and editor, Parliament Matters podcast
Mark was BBC Radio 4's parliamentary correspondent for over two decades, reporting from the heart of Westminster for Today in Parliament. He also presented Book Talk for BBC Parliament, a programme exploring books with political themes or connections. During the height of the Brexit crisis, he anchored the channels live coverage of the pivotal votes, helping to deliver record breaking audiences for the channel. Mark began his BBC career with East Midlands Today, before joining The Westminster Hour in 1998. Prior to that, he was a researcher on Weekend World at London Weekend Television and a reporter for the Leicester Mercury following a brief spell on the party newspaper of the SDP (Social Democratic Party). He has written several books including 'Order! Order! Sixty Years of Today in Parliament'.
Tel: +44 (0)191 208 7922 alistair.clark@newcastle.ac.uk X/Twitter
Professor Alistair Clark
Co-editor, Parliamentary Affairs journal Alistair is Professor of Political Science at Newcastle University, where he teaches modules on Parliamentary Studies, UK Political Parties and Elections, and Public Policy. His research focuses on electoral integrity and administration, standards in public life, political parties, and devolution. He is the author of Political Parties in the UK (Palgrave) and is frequently invited to give evidence to parliamentary committees. In 2021, he served as an adviser to the House of Commons Standards Committee during its review of the MPs’ Code of Conduct and in 2019 he was an advisor to the Scottish Parliament's Finance and Constitution Committee in its scrutiny of the Referendums (Scotland) Bill. Alistair’s editorial work includes co-editing the European Consortium for Political Research Political Data Yearbook (2018–2022) and serving as deputy editor of the British Journal of Politics and International Relations (2009–2015). He has also been a trustee and executive member of the UK Political Studies Association.
Dr Louise Thompson
Co-editor, Parliamentary Affairs journal Louise is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester, where she teaches modules on Parliamentary Studies, Contemporary Issues in Politics and Law, and Research Methods in Politics. Her own research focuses on the UK Parliament, with a particular focus on the legislative process, committees, political parties, and public engagement. She is co-editor of the textbook Exploring Parliament (OUP, 2025) and the author or co-author of seven other books, including The End of the Small Party? Change UK and the Challenges of Parliamentary Politics (2020) and Making British Law: Committees in Action (2015). In 2022, she was an adviser on the BBC Radio 4 political drama Whipped, and in 2024–2025 she served as a UK Parliament POST Academic Fellow with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. She has also held leadership roles within the discipline, including Academic Secretary to the Study of Parliament Group (2018–2022) and convenor of the Political Studies Association’s Parliaments Specialist Group (2014–2019).
