Chairman of Press Complaints Commission from 2003 to 2009. During a long diplomatic career preceding this role he was, notably, press secretary to then Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe (1984-1988), government spokesman and press secretary to then Prime Minister John Major (1994-1996) and British Ambassador to the United States (1997-2003). At the Inquiry, he stated his belief that "any state regulation of the press was, in principle, offensive" and a "slippery slope" that could lead to authoritarian governments eroding freedom of expression. He defended the record of the PCC under his chairmanship, including a 2007 report into phone hacking which found there was "no evidence" of widespread voicemail interception beyond Clive Goodman, the News of The World reporter jailed for this activity at the time.
