Then Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced the appointment of Baroness Young as chair of the organisation on 15 April 2008.

The announcement followed an independent recruitment exercise conducted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission and a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing.

[13] Prior to taking up the post of chair of the CQC, Young was the chief executive of the Environment Agency (2000 – May 2008), an appointment which led to her becoming a non-affiliated member in the House of Lords; previously she had taken the Labour whip.

Other posts she has held include chair of English Nature; vice chairman of the BBC; board member of AWG plc; Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and of a number of local health authorities, including from 1985 Parkside Health Authority (abolished in 1993).

[14] In 2010, Young was appointed Chancellor of Cranfield University,[7] standing down in 2020, and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2017.