Lord David Currie has been appointed our next Chairman and will succeed the current Chairman, Lord Chris Smith next year.

The appointment was announced by the Advertising Standards Board of Finance (asbof and basbof), the bodies that fund the advertising self-regulation system, following consultation with the Department for Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS), Ofcom and the Advertising Association.

Lord Currie is Chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and sits on the cross-benches of the House of Lords.

He has had a successful and distinguished career spanning academia, government, not-for-profit finance and business. Between 2002-09, he was the founding Chairman of Ofcom.

Lord Currie will be the 11th Chairman in our 55 year history. He will chair our Council, which is the body that decides whether complained-about advertisements have breached the Advertising Codes, oversees our more proactive project-based approach to tackling issues and sets the strategic direction of the ASA.

Lord Smith’s successful decade in the role has already seen us take on responsibility for regulating advertisers’ own claims on their own websites and social media spaces – a considerable expansion of its remit.

Sir Chris Powell, Chairman of asbof and basbof said:

“The advertising industry is delighted to have persuaded someone of such expertise and experience to succeed Lord Smith, who has been such an enormously successful Chairman of the ASA, reinforcing the strong reputation of self-regulation across a broader range of advertising”.

Lord Currie said:

“The ASA has a long history of upholding standards in advertising and I’m delighted to be appointed Chairman. As well as responding to complaints about ads, the ASA has been getting on the front foot and taking action on its own initiative in sectors where consumers are facing problems. I look forward to overseeing the next stage of ASA’s mission to make every UK ad a responsible ad”.

Lord Currie will take up his position from 1 October 2017.