Sir Robin Richard Tilt (born 11 March 1944) is a British

public servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

. Formerly a prison governor, he served as Director General of

Her Majesty's Prison Service His Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS) is a part of HM Prison and Probation Service (formerly the National Offender Management Service), which is the part of His Majesty's Government charged with managing most of the prisons within England and ...

(1996–99), Social Fund Commissioner (2000–09), Chairman of the Social Security Advisory Committee (2004–11) and Independent Chair of the

Internet Watch Foundation The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is a registered charity based in Cambridge, England. It states that its remit is "to minimise the availability of online sexual abuse content, specifically child sexual abuse images and videos hosted anywhe ...

(2012–17). He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the

1999 Birthday Honours The 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours to celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday were announced on 7 June 1999 in New Zealand and Niue, and on 12 June 1999 in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. The recipients of honours are displayed h ...

Education

Tilt was educated at the

King's School, Worcester The King's School, Worcester is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private co-educational day school refounded by Henry VIII of England, Henry VIII in 1541. It occupies a site adjacent to Worcester Cathedral on the banks of the River Sev ...

and the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

Career

Prison Service

Tilt first worked within

, as an Assistant Governor, in 1966. He served as Governor of

HM Prison Bedford HMP Bedford is a Category B men's prison, located in the Harpur area of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Building The prison has been on its current site since 1801 and was designed by t ...

and HM Prison Gartree. Following the removal of Derek Lewis, Director General of the Prison Service, Tilt became acting Director General in October 1995, and was formally appointed Director General on 1 April 1996, retiring in 1999. Tilt was a member of the Sentencing Advisory Panel from 1999 to 2002. Tilt was a panelist at a conference of individuals involved within the Prison Services, meeting to discuss and vote on issues regarding the Chaucer Unit. The Chaucer unit was created in order to investigate the services of

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

for instances of corruption and serious misconduct, as a consequence of the so-called ATM scam within HM Prison Blantyre House. Tilt gave evidence to the inquiry into the death of Ulster loyalist Billy Wright, regarding the validity of a decision to house imprisoned individuals of the

Loyalist Volunteer Force The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) was an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed by Billy Wright (loyalist), Billy Wright in 1996 when he and his unit split from the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) a ...

and the

Irish National Liberation Army The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA, ) is an Irish republicanism, Irish republican Socialism, socialist paramilitary group formed on 8 December 1974, during the 30-year period of conflict known as "the Troubles". The group seeks to remove ...

together within

HM Prison Maze HM Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre, and known colloquially as the Maze or H-Blocks) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to September 2000. On 15 ...

, giving this evidence on 10 December 2008.

National Health Service and Social Security

He served as chairman of the following

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

trusts and authorities: * Kettering General Hospital NHS Trust (1999–2000) * Northamptonshire Health Authority (2000–02) * Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland

Strategic Health Authority Strategic health authorities (SHA) were part of the structure of the National Health Service in England between 2002 and 2013. Each SHA was responsible for managing performance, enacting directives and implementing health policy as required by the ...

(2002–06) Appointed as Social Fund Commissioner for Great Britain and Northern Ireland in December 2000, Tilt served in this part-time post until 2009. He was also elected to chair the Social Security Advisory Committee in 2004, serving two terms, his second term ending on 31 March 2011. In 2000, Sir Richard Tilt chaired a review (the ''Tilt Review'') of security at the three high-security hospitals in England ( Ashworth, Broadmoor and Rampton). The Tilt Review suggested increased security measures, and altogether made 86 recommendations, all of which were subsequently accepted by the government. Following a critique of the Tilt Review by Tim Exworthy and John Gunn in the

British Journal of Psychiatry The ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering all branches of psychiatry with a particular emphasis on the clinical aspects of each topic. The journal is owned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and publish ...

, Tilt published a response in June 2003.

Internet Watch Foundation

Tilt was appointed Independent Chair of the

in January 2012. His six-year term as chair ended at the end of December 2017.

Other responsibilities

He was governor of

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body ...

from 2001 to 2010.

References

External links

Report
- Press Dispensary 19-10-2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tilt, Richard Alumni of the University of Nottingham People involved with mental health Knights Bachelor Living people 1944 births People educated at King's School, Worcester Social Fund (UK)