Richard retired from the Civil Service in 2019 having spent his last 14 years working on prison education policy. He was involved heavily in the 2011 John Hayes/Crispin Blunt review of prison education and a member of Dame Sally Coates’ team during her 2016 review. Richard’s policy responsibilities also included learning difficulty and disability, and disadvantaged learners in general. Prior to this Richard had a variety of finance and procurement roles in the Department for Education. His career began in customer-facing roles in the Employment Department. Richard has other trustee roles and is a school governor.