| Biography | Nazir Afzal OBE is a British solicitor and former prosecutor within the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Afzal spent most of his career in the CPS, rising to be Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England in 2011, a role he held until leaving the CPS in 2015. In 2016 he was appointed chief executive of the Association of Police and crime commissioners; he resigned immediately after the May 2017 Manchester Arena bombing so that he could comment freely on the attack. He was appointed Chancellor of the University of Manchester in 2022, succeeding Lemn Sissay on August 1.
In 2017 he became a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) Complaints Committee. In 2018, he became the Chair of the Corporation Board at Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. He is a Muslim, with views in favour of women's rights and against forced marriage, female genital mutilation and so-called honour killings. |