[5] However, the makeover was not well regarded by senior management, and in an abrupt move, after just eight months and 20 days in post, Sands was sacked as editor of the newspaper on 7 March 2006 by Andrew Neil and replaced by Patience Wheatcroft.
[11] Sands resigned from the post in late January 2020, the day after major cuts to BBC News were announced.
She is a Trustee of the Science Museum, Bletchley Park and John Innes Centre research institute in Norwich and sits on the board of the Berkeley Group and Channel 4.
She is an ambassador for Global Partnership for Education, an Associate at the IWM, former Trustee of Index on Censorship and co-founded the Braemar Summit in 2021.
Her second marriage was to Kim Fletcher, a former editorial director of the Telegraph group and editor of The Independent on Sunday, with whom she has two children.