At time of the Inquiry, Lord Black (Guy Black) was Chairman of Press Standards Board of Finance Limited and Director of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). He had been responsible for tightening the PCC's Code of Practice in the wake of the death in 1997 of Princess Diana. The Lord Black proposals frequently referred to throughout the Inquiry were his proposals for a new system of independent press self-regulation and were put forward on behalf of the newspaper industry.
Public relations and communications expert, formerly a civil servant and first head of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat of the Cabinet Office in 2001. Over 25 years, Granatt held a range of senior communications posts in the British civil service, and was press secretary to five Cabinet ministers, both Conservative and Labour.
Writer and broadcaster and at time of Inquiry a regular columnist for the Times; formerly a Conservative Member of Parliament. He had no knowledge of "phone-hacking", he said, but believed that all such activities and espionage should be seen in the context of press subterfuge over the past century.
