MHRA reappoints three non-executive directors

Britain’s medicines regulator has confirmed a simple but important bit of board news. On 11 December 2025, the MHRA said Mercy Jeyasingham, Dr Junaid Bajwa and Rajakumari Long have been reappointed as non‑executive directors. Chair Professor Anthony Harnden welcomed the extensions and said their insight will support the Board as it finalises a new organisational strategy in the coming months.

If you teach or study health policy, it helps to know what the MHRA does. The Agency regulates medicines, medical devices and blood components for transfusion in the UK, using science and data to judge whether products are acceptably safe and effective while encouraging responsible innovation. That’s the foundation for decisions that affect every patient and clinician.

So what do non‑executive directors actually do? On UK public bodies, non‑executives sit on the board to provide independent scrutiny and challenge, support long‑term planning, and hold the executive to account. They guide strategy rather than run day‑to‑day operations. That definition comes from the government’s own guide to public appointments.

A recent MHRA notice on board appointments set out what these roles typically look like in practice: around two to three days a month, with remuneration of £7,883 a year for NEDs and £13,137 for the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee Chair. Appointments follow the Cabinet Office Governance Code on Public Appointments and are overseen by the independent Commissioner.

Why do reappointments matter now? Because continuity on the board helps the Agency steer through a year of change. New post‑market surveillance rules for medical devices came into force across Great Britain on 16 June 2025, strengthening patient safety expectations. Over the summer, the WHO also listed the MHRA among the world’s trusted regulators, recognising its high standards. Stable leadership helps keep this work on track.

A quick media‑literacy checkpoint for your class or study group: the MHRA Board sets strategy and provides oversight, but it does not sign off individual medicines or devices. Those formal regulatory decisions are taken by the chief executive and the executive team, advised by scientific experts. Knowing this distinction helps you read announcements like today’s without mixing up governance with licensing.

If you want to verify appointments yourself, the Department of Health and Social Care publishes an annual list of public appointments, and the refreshed Governance Code explains how merit‑based selection works and what transparency to expect. Checking these two sources is a good habit when you see headlines about who’s joining-or staying on-a public board.

For wider context, the MHRA noted in July 2025 that five non‑executive directors were reappointed and that two members would leave at the end of August 2025. Board membership changes over time, but managed refresh paired with reappointments preserves organisational memory-useful when a regulator is updating strategy and implementing new rules.