Stewart Sutherland

Stewart Ross Sutherland, Baron Sutherland of Houndwood, KT, FRSE, FBA (born 25 February 1941) is a Scottish academic and public servant.

Educated at the University of Aberdeen and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, he was appointed assistant lecturer in Philosophy at the University College of North Wales, and three years later returned to Scotland as a lecturer at the University of Stirling. In 1977, he became Professor of History and Philosophy of Religion at King's College London, and was subsequently appointed vice-principal and principal there in 1981 and 1985 respectively.

In 1990, Sutherland became Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, and was appointed Chief Inspector of Schools two years later. He succeeded this post as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Edinburgh University, in which position he served until 2002. In 1992, he was elected to the British Academy, and in 1995 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the same year he was knighted and became President in 2002.

Following his involvement in the establishment of the Age Concern Institute of Gerontology at King's College London, he was invited by the incoming Blair government in 1997 to chair a Royal Commission on Long-Term Care of Older People. This recommended that government (including the NHS and local authorities) should be responsible for providing free care in the spirit of the NHS Act to all people even if their illness takes the form of a chronic mental frailty. This principle does apply in Scotland but the Treasury resisted it in England and Wales.

Sutherland is a Commissioner at the Office of Surveillance Commissioners.

Profile

Sutherland was made a Knight Bachelor in 1995. In 2001, he was created a life peer as Baron Sutherland of Houndwood, of Houndwood in the Scottish Borders, and was the following year elected to the presidency of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

He was made a Knight of the Thistle in 2002, is the recipient of a number of honorary degrees, and continues to serve with various institutions. In 2005 he became a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Affiliations

• David Hume Institute