OUR NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SECTOR

Harvey is one of the UK's leading experts on criminal justice policy, advising Prime Ministers, Mayors, PCCs and chief constables over the last 20 years. CEO since 2017, he has built Crest into the UK's leading expert team on justice, policing and public safety. Before joining us, Harvey was home affairs advisor to the Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband, and a Deputy Director at the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, where he ran cross-government home affairs reviews on behalf of Conservative and Labour Prime Ministers. Harvey is a senior policy advisor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change where he has published papers on immigration, crime and police reform. Harvey has completed a Fulbright Scholarship at Harvard University and is currently a Policy Fellow at the University of Manchester. He regularly appears in broadcast and print media, including BBC News, Sky News and LBC.

As the former Director of Criminal Justice Commissioning and Policy at the Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime (MOPAC), Sam led major transformation programmes across London’s justice services. Sam oversaw the devolution of victim and witness support budgets to London, the development of the Mayor’s strategy to tackle violence against women and girls and the creation of the London Violence Reduction Unit. This followed roles in crime reduction operations and commissioning at Westminster Borough Council. At Crest, Sam has led a major programme of work at the Crown Prosecution Service improving outcomes for victims and helped 43 police force areas to prepare for the Home Office serious violence duty Sam is Executive Director with responsibility for Crest’s consulting practice.

Charlotte was previously Head of News at the Independent Police Complaints Commission, where she led the communications response to the police shooting of Mark Duggan, the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 disorder and the investigation into allegations of a police cover-up over the Hillsborough disaster. Before that, Charlotte was Press Secretary to the Attorney General and a communications officer at the Metropolitan Police. At Crest, Charlotte has provided communications support to a number of statutory and non-statutory inquiries, including the Manchester Arena Inquiry, and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, and to technology clients working in policing and justice. Charlotte is Executive Director with responsibility for Crest’s people and culture.

Gavin has provided communications and strategy advice to criminal justice leaders and the British Government for over twenty years. He founded Crest in 2011, following a period in government as home affairs advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron after the 2010 election. In this role he presented communications and policy advice to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and other Cabinet-level Ministers about ways to modernise public services (developing both drug recovery and reducing re-offending schemes), shift power to individuals and communities (introducing legislation paving the way for Elected Police Commissioners) and increase transparency (publishing local crime data). Previously, he helped establish a crime reduction research unit at the Policy Exchange think tank authoring reports on serious violence and reoffending. CEO until 2017, Gavin is now Chair of Crest with responsibility for providing strategic advice to central government and for our roster of senior associates from policing, the civil service and the wider criminal justice system.

Before joining us, Jon was a broadcaster for ITN and a reporter for the Daily Mirror. He specialised in home affairs and crime, reporting and commentating on major events, including the 2011 riots, and public inquiries and other legal proceedings, including the inquests into the July 7 bombings and the Stephen Lawrence murder trial. After leaving journalism, Jon became Head of Policy and External Affairs at the national charity Victim Support. At Crest, he has advised statutory public inquiries and arms length bodies, overseen research into public perceptions of the Prevent programme and the use of stop and search, and led Baroness Casey of Blackstock’s independent review of disorder at Wembley during the Euro 2020 Final. Jon is Executive Director with responsibility for Crest’s business development and marketing.

Rod manages Crest’s financial operations and oversees the human resources, contracts and office management areas of the business. Before joining Crest, Rod was director for a major European retail company working to improve organisational culture and expand its operations.