Chris Bell has joined Shergroup as Policy Advisor, providing advice directly to the Chief Executive, Claire Sandbrook, and other members of the senior management team on a range of enforcement and policy development issues.

Chris has more than 22 years’ experience, having started at the Inland Revenue (after graduating from college) as a collector of taxes. A period as the appointed plaintiff collector for South East London was followed by seven years in the Lord Chancellor’s Department, now the Ministry of Justice, working with the civil enforcement policy team.

His main achievement to date was overseeing the implementation of the reforms to the High Court enforcement system contained within the Courts Act 2003. This has seen the rapid yet successful changes in the system for appointing HCEOs and the enforcing of High Court writs that have brought the High Court enforcement sector to the eminent position it holds within the industry today.

For the past two years, Chris has been the senior policy manager on the Coroner Reform Programme, and played a major role in seeing the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 onto the statute books.

Claire Sandbrook, Shergroup Chief Executive, says that Chris’ appointment is a further sign of Shergroup’s standing in the industry: “For one of the advisers to the Ministry of Justice to be joining us I think is a sign of the mutual respect on both sides,” she says. “Chris will strengthen what is already a formidable team. For many years I have had the opportunity to work directly with Ministry officials and have been impressed by the depth of knowledge and understanding they have with regard to the importance of enforcing civil court orders.

“As a company Shergroup has flown the flag for reform over the last decade and I believe we can now influence the debate even further to ensure that High Court enforcement is seen as a world class service for our clients, the judges and our other important partners. Having Chris on the team enables us to test our ideas and opinions against those of senior policy officials which I find very helpful before releasing new services into the market”.

Chris was also the winner of BBC Sports Mastermind in summer 2008 and as there hasn’t been another series since, he is still the reigning champion.