The Authority for Television On Demand Ltd
27 Sheet Street, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1BN

Ruth Evans, Independent ATVOD Chair
Ruth Evans has a thirty-year track record representing the consumer and public interest, serving as Chief Executive of the National Consumer Council for seven years, running three charities and chairing a range of public and regulatory bodies.  Today she is the Chair of ATVOD, the regulator of television on demand, Non-executive Commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, Non-Executive Director of CPP Group PLC and founding Trustee of Alacrity Entrepreneurship Foundation, a graduate scheme established to build successful technology companies.

Until recently, Ruth held several appointments on regulatory boards. In professional regulation, she was the first Chair of the Bar Standards Board, the Regulator for Barristers responsible for setting standards where she led reviews of its Code of Conduct, Complaints Handling and Training and Education functions.  She was also a Lay Member of the General Medical Council for 9 years and Chair of its Standards and Ethics Committee where she ran the review of the professions’ code, Good Medical Practice, and was involved in its plans for revalidation.  In economic regulation, she was Deputy Chair of the Office for Communications Consumer Panel for five years; and Board Director of PhonePay Plus.  Her non-exec experience is broad, ranging from Directorships at the National Audit Office to commercial NEDs at Nationwide Building Society, Liverpool Victoria Group, and the Advisory Board of ING Direct, UK.

After leaving the National Consumer Council twelve years ago, Ruth chaired two high profile inquiries, one into Drug Testing at Work and another into paediatric cardiac services at Brompton and Harefield Hospitals.  She also took on appointments representing the consumer interest on a wide range of boards in the public and private sectors including the Human Genetics Commission, the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Queen’s Counsel Appointments Panel.  

Ruth began her professional life in charities, volunteering for Liberty after graduation before being appointed at 22 as the first Director to a newly established coalition of charities and poverty organisations, the Maternity Alliance.  Following that, Ruth joined Mind as Deputy Director, then Acting Director, before taking over as Chief Executive of War on Want where, upon arrival, she discovered the charity was insolvent, and took it into receivership.  From there she went on to run the National Consumer Council for three terms of office.

Education
Cambridge University
Camden School for Girls
Connections
306 connections
Ruth Evans' Experience
Chair
Authority of Television on Demand
March 2010 – Present (4 years 4 months)
No-executive Commissioner and Chair of Remuneration Committee
Independent Police Complaints Commission
June 2009 – Present (5 years 1 month)
Director
Alacrity Entrepreunership Foundation
September 2011 – Present (2 years 10 months)
Consultant
SHM Partnership
January 2010 – Present (4 years 6 months)
Non-executive Director and Chair of Remuneration Committee
National Audit Office
Government Agency; 501-1000 employees; Government Administration industry
January 2009 – June 2012 (3 years 6 months)
Non Exec Chair/Director
Non-exec Appointments 1999-2011
January 1999 – 2011 (12 years)
2008 – 2011 Non-executive Director, Phone Pay Plus
2005 - 2011 Member, Customer Impact Panel, Assn British Insurers
2007 – 2010 Board Member, ING Direct, UK
2005 – 2008 Chairman, Bar Standards Board
2004 – 2008 Member, Queen’s Counsel Selection Panel
2004 – 2009 Deputy Chair, Ofcom Consumer Panel
1999 – 2008 Lay Member, General Medical Council
2003 – 2005 Chairman, Standards Committee, GMC
2002 - 2006 Member, Audit Commission, Independent Complaints Panel
2002 –2005 Non-executive Director, Nationwide Building Society
2003 - 2005 Member, Law Society Governance Review Group
2002 – 2004 Chair, Independent Inquiry into Drug Testing at Work
1999 – 2002 Member, Human Genetics Commission
1999 – 2002 Non-Executive Director, Financial Ombudsman Service
1999 – 2002 Non-Executive Director, Liverpool Victoria Group
1999 – 2001 Chairman, Independent Inquiry into Paediatric Cardiac Services at
Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals
1999 – 2000 Member, Fabian Society’s Commission on Taxation & Citizenship
1999 - 1999 Member, Independent Panel on the Future Funding of the BBC
1994 – 2000 Trustee, Money Advice Trust.
Chief Executive
National Consumer Council
January 1992 – December 1998 (7 years)
Chief Executive National Consumer Council and:

• 1994 – 1997 Board Director, National Consumer Council Services Ltd,
a joint business venture with Deloitte Touche

• 1995 – 1999 Chair, Standing Advisory Group on Consumers in the NHS (Ministerial appointment)

• 1995 – 1999 Member, Central Research and Development Committee of the NHS (Ministerial appointment)

• 1995 – 1999 Member, UK Round Table on Sustainable Development (Ministerial appointment)

• 1998 – 1999 Member, Expert Panel on Sustainable Development (Ministerial appointment).

• 1997 -1998 Member, NHS Charter Advisory Group (Ministerial appointment)

• 1997 – 1998 Member, DTI’s ‘Consumers First’ Award Scheme Panel (Ministerial appointment)

• 1996 – 1997 Member, DOH Advisory Board, Acting on Complaints, (Ministerial appointment)

• 1994 – 1997 Board Member, Prevention of Professional Abuse Network

• 1993 – 1995 Member, Committee of Management of UK Cochrane Centre
Consultant developing strategies and business plans
Department of Health
1990 – 1991 (1 year)
Chief Executive
War on Want
January 1990 – September 1990 (9 months)
Deputy Director
Mind, National Association of Mental Health
1986 – 1990 (4 years)
First Director
Maternity Alliance
1980 – 1986 (6 years)

The Authority for Television On Demand has called on the Government to reinforce in law the requirement for UK operators of adult websites, specifically those that peddle pornography, to put workable Age Verification in front of R18 content or risk having their funding sources blocked. Now they just need to figure out the “how“.

Ruth Evans, ATVOD Chair, said:
“We do not advocate censorship … There is nothing in the ATVOD Rules which interferes with the right to provide sexually explicit material to an adult online. But pornography is a product which is produced and designed for use by adults, not children.
That is why the industry that makes and sells it calls itself ‘the adult industry’. There cannot be any justification for UK providers of sexually explicit pornographic material to make such images available to under 18s. The law requires that UK on demand services keep such material out of reach of minors and we are committed to ensuring that UK providers of video on demand services comply with the statutory rules. But we have no control over services that come from outside the UK.
These findings expose the scale of the problem of child access to pornography on adult websites operated from outside the UK. The Government needs to act urgently with a range of measures to protect children from this content.”