FRC reacts with shock to Dame Barbara Mills' death

COLLEAGUES HAVE reacted with shock to the death of Professional Oversight Board chair Dame Barbara Mills.

Dame Barbara, 70, died two weeks after she had suffered a stroke. She had chaired POB, which monitors accountants and auditors, from October 2008.

Financial Reporting Council chairman Baroness Hogg said in a statement: "We are all shocked and immensely saddened by Barbara's death. She will be very greatly missed, as a respected and highly effective colleague - and a good friend.

"Barbara combined a first-rate intellect with a deeply generous nature and commitment to those who worked with her. Her zest for life was clear to all who knew her. Our thoughts today are with her husband John and their family, for whom this has been such a sudden and dreadful loss."

Dame Barbara was the first female director of public prosecutions, and head of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Between 1998 and March 2009 she was the adjudicator for HM Revenue & Customs, and two other government departments.

Chris Dickson, executive counsel of the former accountancy disciplinary body JDS who worked with Dame Barbara at the SFO, has previously described her as "charming and open minded".

Dame Barbara and POB were criticised in 2010 over plans to widen the regulatory net across more accountancy services.