Chief Executive, Food Standards Agency

Policy Fellow, Centre for Science and Policy

Katie is the Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency, a non-ministerial department which makes sure that food is safe and is what it says it is, and helps to make food healthier and more sustainable.

Katie joined the FSA in July 2021 and stepped up as the interim Chief Executive in August 2024. Before that, as director for strategy and regulatory compliance, she was a member of the FSA’s executive management team and was responsible for the FSA’s overall strategy, legal, communications, governance and project delivery teams. She also led the FSA’s regulatory compliance work, working with local authorities to ensure that food businesses are complying with the law on food safety and standards, and developing new approaches for the future through the FSA’s 'Achieving Business Compliance' Programme.

She has previously been the Public Policy Director at Ofcom, where she played a major role in shaping Ofcom’s work on issues like improving mobile and broadband coverage across the UK, and working with the Government on new regulation to protect people from harmful content online. She also sponsored Ofcom’s diversity and inclusion strategy. Before that she spent two decades in Whitehall departments, mainly in social policy roles. She has held Senior Civil Service roles in the Ministry of Justice, the Cabinet Office and the Northern Ireland Office.