Nick Ross CBE

Nick Ross was, for many years, one of Britain’s most-trusted and experienced broadcasters – once described as a ‘national treasure’ – he is now a writer, non-executive director of numerous organisations, and a sought-after conference moderator and campaigner for community safety and evidence-based public policy.

Although Nick become a household name in the UK launching breakfast TV, Watchdog, Crimewatch and flagship radio programmes, he has presented, produced and directed many of the key factual series on British radio and television.

He has been a leading broadcaster across a wide range of issues, specialising at various times in news, current affairs, politics, and crime, with several forays into lighter fields including chat shows and quizzes.

Nick Ross has also written and directed award-winning documentaries and was a lobby correspondent. He retired from full-time broadcasting in 2010 to focus on conferences hosting and moderating plus voluntary work, but still contributes to radio and TV.

Starting as a junior reporter while still at university, Nick covered the Northern Ireland troubles for the BBC and moved to host programmes such as Radio 4's The World at One, PM and The World Tonight. He became a TV reporter, documentary director, political correspondent and chaired live debates, but was best known for the crime appeals programme Crimewatch, which he presented for over two decades.

In 1997 he was Broadcaster of the Year for his BBC Radio 4 phone-in Call Nick Ross, in 1999 won a Best Documentary prize for a personal account of the troubles in Northern Ireland, in 2000 was shortlisted for a Royal Television Society award for his BBC TWO debate series Nick Ross, and in September 2001 collected Best Factual Programme at the TV Quick Awards.

Crime Prevention & Security
Nick Ross conceived the new discipline of Crime Science and inspired and founded the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at University College London, where he is chairman of the board. He is an Honorary Fellow of UCL and of the (American) Academy of Experimental Criminology.

After years presenting the BBC's flagship programme Crimewatch, Nick Ross was disappointed at the failure of criminology to stem crime and sought more practical and scientifically robust ways to cut victimisation.

In 1995 he coined the term Crime Science to mark out a new multidisciplinary and evidence-based focus on crime reduction. Crime science is less concerned with political theory, criminal justice or redemption of people than with demonstrably effective and measurable ways of reducing victimisation.

Most epidemics and cuts in crime are explained by changing circumstances in which individuals find themselves rather than by moves to reengineer people or society, so while Crime Science embraces police training, detection methods and forensic science it finds most leverage in improving security by rethinking products, services or policies so as to design out unnecessary temptations and opportunities for crime.

Health & Bioethics
Through his membership of a consensus conference which helped change breast cancer treatment, Nick Ross has become progressively more involved with health policy, notably in bioethics and promoting evidence-based medicine and open decision-making about healthcare spending.

He was a member of the NHS National Plan Taskforce, of the Clothier Committee which first authorised gene therapy in the UK, and of the subsequent Gene Therapy Advisory Committee. He served two 3-year terms on the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, was a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences inquiry into the use of non-human primates in research, and a Director of the Health Quality Service.

He currently sits on other medical and ethics boards including that of the Royal College of Physicians and is Chairman of the Wales Cancer Bank Advisory Board.

In 2022, he was awarded a CBE by HM the Queen, in a ceremony at Windsor Castle, for services to broadcasting, charity and crime prevention. He is married to Sarah Caplin, co-founder of ChildLine and former Deputy Secretary of the BBC and also a senior executive with ITV.

Away from broadcasting and the media, Nick Ross has gained a solid reputation as one of the UK's leading conference moderators and facilitators, working for governments, and global agencies and corporations in every continent and across a wide range of expertise.

His engagements have ranged from confidential brainstorming or acting as broker between rival corporations, to chairing conventions with presidents, prime ministers and thousands of delegates.

Nick Ross has also lectured around the world and is a popular presenter of crime issues. He has a high level of expertise in not only crime, security and community safety but also a wide ranging knowledge of other policy issues, including particular personal interests in health, bioethics and science (and debunking pseudo-science) and he has also campaigned on environmental issues, Northern Ireland, and broadcasting policy.