Ms Pearce has 18 years of public sector experience, including as Chief Executive of the Mental Health Act Commission, and is currently Director of Jelly Products Ltd; a manufacturing SME with an international customer base.

Ms Pearce will form part of the leadership team of the Coal Authority, which manages the licensing of coal mining operations in the UK as well as the effects of past coal mining, including subsidence damage claims which are not the responsibility of licensed coal mine operators.

She will take up the role on 1 April 2016 as a replacement for the outgoing Stephen Redmond.