Five new lay members have been appointed, which means that from January 2012 there will be eight lay and seven barrister members on the board.

The new members include chartered accountant Tim Robinson, who has worked at Price Waterhouse Coopers and Accenture, and also sits as a member of the Employment Tribunal; Andrew Sanders, a professor of criminal law and criminology at Birmingham University; Anne Wright, chair of the National Lottery Commission; Rob Behrens, Independent Adjudicator and chief executive of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education; and Rolande Anderson, a director of Genesis Housing Group.

Baroness Ruth Deech, chair of the BSB, said: “I am pleased that we now have a lay majority for the Board. “These appointments reinforce our commitment to regulate barristers in the public interest and to enhance our position as the specialist regulator of advocacy in England and Wales.”

Baroness Deech thanked outgoing Board members Sarah Brown, John Carrier, Charles Hollander QC and Simon Monty QC, who she said had been “instrumental in the development of a new code of conduct for barristers, our advancement towards a regulatory framework for legal businesses and the setting and maintenance of educational standards at the Bar”.