Chair of our Board awarded Grand Cross for public service  

We are delighted that Professor Dame Carol Black has been awarded in the New Year Honours List 2024 a Dame Grand Cross in the Order of the British Empire (GBE) for public service.

A rare honour, the Grand Cross is the highest rank in the Order and recognises Dame Carol’s transformational work, following her damehood (DBE) in 2005 for services to medicine, advising Government, through four independent reviews, on such challenging issues as health and work, sickness absence, productivity, and latterly addiction and dependency on illicit drugs.

On receiving the honour, she said:

“I am absolutely delighted to have been made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire.

Drug dependency is still stigmatised but it needs to be recognised as a chronic health condition. My heartfelt thanks go to everyone who has helped and supported me, and to those individuals doing great work on the frontline to change culture and practice.

“This award comes almost 20 years after I received a DBE for services to medicine and recognises the progress being made to tackle some of the most entrenched and interrelated problems in society – poverty, homelessness, unemployment, and drug dependency.”

“Drug dependency is still stigmatised but it needs to be recognised as a chronic health condition. My heartfelt thanks go to everyone who has helped and supported me, and to those individuals doing great work on the frontline to change culture and practice.”

In 2019, with drug-related deaths at an all-time high, she was appointed to lead a major independent review of the impact of illicit drugs on society, publishing hard-hitting Parts in 2020 and 2021. She successfully galvanised commitment to a cross-government approach and additional funding (£780m over three years) to tackle drug misuse, with a new holistic strategy to address the various challenges.

Dame Carol is Chair of the Board of our charity Think Ahead, and also chairs the British Library and the Centre for Ageing Better. She is also a past-President of the Royal College of Physicians, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and the British Lung Foundation; past-Principal of Newnham College Cambridge; and past-Chair of the Nuffield Trust for health policy.

Dame Carol’s lifelong dedication to public service is truly remarkable and this honour is much deserved.