Annie was appointed Lead Inspector in June 2023. Her background is in applied social research, which she has conducted in the public, academic and voluntary sectors for over 17 years.  Annie has been involved in inspection work of custodial settings and criminal justice procedures since 2012. As Associate Inspector for HMICS she worked for over 4 years on inspections including custody, domestic abuse, hate crime and the annual police plan. Prior to this she worked as a research officer for HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMI Prisons) in England and Wales, where she was involved in conducting qualitative and quantitative research as part of inspections of various custodial settings including prisons, young offender institutions, secure training centres, immigration removal centres and joint inspections of police custody.

Annie also conducts research in academic settings where her main research areas include procedures, policies and practice for women in custody, and the experiences of women and practitioners within these settings.  Her PhD in criminology from the University of Glasgow focused upon the experiences of practitioners working with young women in custody in Scotland. Most recently Annie has been working on research into the psychosocial wellbeing of, and vicarious traumatisation as experienced by women working with marginalised and disadvantaged women in third sector organisations across the UK. She also worked for the University of Oxford conducting research into the treatment and human rights of those detained in immigration removal centres. Annie previously worked as a programme manager for several years in the voluntary sector both internationally, and in the UK, where she managed projects focusing upon the improvement of health and education provision for those within marginalised communities. Since 2016 she has been a Board Member of Up-2-Us, an organisation who provide social and housing support to young people.

Across her previous roles, Annie’s track record includes translating research into policy and practice recommendations; knowledge and learning transfer across a range of contexts; and engagement with partners, including policy makers, government, corporate services and practitioners, to implement change.