Professor Hutton will become part of the team of commissioners who supervise English Heritage’s activities and make policy for it.  He will also have a broader remit of acting as an advocate for the importance of history in national life, and as a statutory advisor to the Government on historical issues.  His four-year term of appointment begins on 1 October 2009.

Professor Hutton said: "I have always had a love of the material remains of the past and a keen sense of the need to keep the people of England aware of and responsible for them. This is in many ways the ideal job for me."

Ronald Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol (August 1996 to date).  Prior to this he was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, before serving as Lecturer and then Reader in History at Bristol (1981 to 1996).  He is the author of fourteen books and many shorter works and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries.  Since the 1980s he has been involved with the broadcast media, including the writing and presentation of documentaries for London Weekend Television, and the designing and hosting of three successive series of a historians' quiz game, 'Battling with the Past', for BBC Radio Four. 

English Heritage was established by the National Heritage Act 1983 as the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England.  It receives around three quarters of its income from the Exchequer in the form of Grant in Aid (£129.4 million in 2007/2008) and the remainder (£49.2 million) from commercial activities and fund raising.  English Heritage’s role is to champion and care for the historic environment.