Last updated September 2008
Category: Senior Staff
Printable version Ric Bailey is the BBC's Chief Adviser, Politics, taking up the post in Editorial Policy in September 2006.
He joined the BBC in 1982, working first in local radio, mainly at Radio Stoke as a reporter, producer and news editor, winning a Sony Gold award for coverage of the miners' strike.
In 1985, Ric moved to BBC Westminster as a regional Parliamentary reporter for local radio and regional TV.
Two years later, he became a Parliamentary Correspondent, presenting Yesterday In Parliament and other political output on radio.
In 1990 he became a network Political Correspondent for BBC TV and Radio.
Ric Bailey was appointed Editor of Political Newsgathering in 1995, leading the team of BBC Political Correspondents and newsgatherers at Westminster.
Between 2000 and 2006, he was Deputy Head of Political Programmes, with responsibility for Question Time, for which he was the BBC's Executive Editor.
He oversaw more than 200 editions of the programme, including specials from China, Russia, the Middle East, South Africa, the United States and all around the UK, as well as the Leaders' Election Special in 2005 which, for the first time, saw all three main party leaders appear (though not together) on the same live programme in front of the same live audience.
Ric Bailey also developed and led a major citizenship project across secondary schools – the Schools Question Time Challenge – which resulted in the first appearance of a member of the public on a Question Time panel in July 2006.
He was born in Manchester in 1958 and studied Modern History and Politics at Southampton University, followed by a diploma in Broadcast Journalism from the City University in 1981.
