Manzoor in hot seat

Zahida Manzoor CBE was named last week as the chief public watchdog on the standards of handling complaints by the legal profession, taking over as the Legal Services Ombudsman on 3 March.

Ms Manzoor, director of her own management consultancy company Intellisys, has served on both the NHS policy board and the Commission for Racial Equality, and has chaired Bradford Health Authority and the NHS's Northern and Yorkshire regional executive.

In 1999 she was voted National Asian Woman of the Year.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, said, 'The legal professions generally provide high standards of service when people need access to justice or want to defend or assert their rights.

But the public must also be confident there are effective ways of complaining if things go wrong.

'I am certain that Zahida Manzoor, with her wide experience of serving the public in different fields, will build on the reputation of the ombudsman's office.'

Ms Manzoor, who is appointed for three years, succeeds Ann Abraham.