Dame Deirdre Mary Hutton DBE (born 15 March 1949),^[1] is a British public servant, termed by the British media as "Queen of the Quangos"^[2] and "The great quango hopper".^[3] She was the chair of the UK's Civil Aviation Authority from 2009 to 2020.

A former anti-apartheid demonstrator who was once arrested in South Africa,^[3] after a short private sector career^[2] working for Anchor housing association (1973–75),^[1] she then became a researcher for Glasgow Chamber of Commerce (1975–80),^{[citation needed]} before becoming its chair (1980–82).^[1]

Hutton has worked for over 10 major non-departmental public bodies in 30 years.^{[citation needed]} Her first appointment was in 1980 to the Arts Council of Scotland.^[3]

She developed her career in championing consumer issues within public sector bodies, particularly in health and food standards and regulation, including: Chair of the Foresight Panel on the Food Chain and Crops for Industry; Chair of the Food Chain Centre; member of the 2001–2 Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food (Curry Commission).^[4] She chaired the board of Rural Forum Scotland in 1999 when it collapsed due to insolvency.^[5] She was, until June 2008, the Vice-Chair of the European Food Safety Authority Management Board. She is Honorary Vice-President of the Institute of Food Science and Technology.^[1]

Hutton was a non-executive Director of the Scottish Borders Health Board and a member of The King's Fund Organizational Audit Council. She was a member of the Wilson Committee on Complaints in the National Health Service, and of the General Dental Council.^[1]

For five years until 2005, she was Chair of the National Consumer Council, having formerly chaired the Scottish Consumer Council. She was Vice-Chair of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency,^[6] a member of the Sustainable Development Commission and a member of the Energy Advisory Panel for the UK Department of Trade and Industry. She was a member of the Better Regulation Task Force. Chair of the Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman Council, Hutton was then Deputy Chair of the Financial Services Authority until December 2007.^[1][7][8] She was a member of the Secretary of State's Consultative Steering Group on the Scottish Parliament.^[1]

During 2008, she was on the three-member panel that conducted an independent review of the postal services on behalf of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Hutton was (2011–16) a non-executive Director of Castle Trust,^[9] and non-executive member of the Treasury Board, and Thames Water.

Hutton is one of 32 Vice-Presidents of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute.

Appointed to the board of the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as a non-executive director in April 2009,^[10] Hutton was appointed chair in 2009 by Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon,^[3] replacing Sir Roy McNulty;^[11] she was paid £130,000 for two days' work a week in 2010,^[12] which was still the case as of 2015, making her one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.^[13] She retired from the role in 2020.^[14] On 1 August 2020, she was appointed as Chancellor of Cranfield University.^[15]

Deirdre Mary Cassells married Alasdair Henry Hutton in 1975 in Oxford.^[16] She was appointed CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for 1998,^[17] and advanced to DBE in the Birthday List of 2004.^[18] In April 2010, she was awarded a Fellowship of City and Guilds.

Divorced^[3] from Alasdair Hutton, former MEP, Hutton has two sons, Thomas and Nicholas Hutton. Her hobbies include gardening and chamber music.^[1]