Retirement of President of the Queen’s Bench Division, Sir Brian Leveson
RetirementPresident of the Queen's Bench DivisionQueen's Bench Division
The Right Honourable Sir Brian Henry Leveson retires as President of the Queen’s Bench Division with effect from 23 June 2019.
Notes to editors
Sir Brian Leveson (70) was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1970. He practised on the Northern Circuit from chambers in Liverpool, across the full range of common law, crime, personal injury and commercial work. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1986, and was a Recorder and a Deputy High Court Judge. He was appointed a Judge of the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division, in 2000, and served as a Presiding Judge of the Northern Circuit. In 2005 he was appointed to the new position of Deputy Senior Presiding Judge and in 2006, following his appointment as a Lord Justice of Appeal, he became Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales.
In 2009, he was appointed Chairman of the Sentencing Council which is a post he held until October 2013. In July 2011, he was appointed by the Prime Minister as Chairman of the public inquiry investigating the culture, practices and ethics of the press and its relationship with the public, the police and politicians: his report was published in November 2012.
Sir Brian Leveson was appointed President of the Queen’s Bench Division in October 2013 and became a member of the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee. In January 2015, he published a Review of Efficiency in Criminal Proceedings. In October 2017, he was appointed Head of Criminal Justice and thereafter Deputy Chair of the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee.
He is an honorary fellow of Merton College, Oxford, is the Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University and has received an honorary LL.D. from the University of Liverpool.