Paul David Corrigan CBE is a Labour politician, and was health adviser to Tony Blair. He is married to Hilary Armstrong.
Born in Woolwich, London on 11 April 1948, Corrigan gained his BSc in sociology, London School of Economics in 1969; PhD in juvenile delinquency and secondary education, University of Durham, 1974 and has been visiting professor of public policy at the University of North London since 1995.
He taught at University of Warwick and the Polytechnic of North London - he was Head of Department of applied social studies in the latter. He taught, researched and wrote about inner city social policy and community development.
He gave papers at the 6th and 11th Symposia of the National Deviancy Conference on 'Interactionist Theory and Social Work' and 'The Industrial Relations Act: A Suitable Case for Deviance?' respectively.[1] At the 1979 UK general election, he was the Communist Party candidate for Coventry North East.[2]
In 1985 he left academic life and worked with the Greater London Council and Inner London Education Authority - until they were abolished by the Thatcher government - and later with the London borough of Islington, and for the local government unit of the Labour party. In 1997 he started to work as a consultant on issues of modernisation. In 1999 he started to work for the Office for Public Management and published "Shakespeare on Management".
In 2001 he was appointed as a special advisor to Alan Milburn, who was then Secretary of State for Health. He served as Special Advisor to Milburn's successor, Dr John Reid. Corrigan is credited as the man behind the Labour government's policy on "Foundation Hospitals" and has written widely about the principle of choice. In 2006, Corrigan returned to the government as a policy adviser to the Prime Minister. In 2007 he announced that he was going to work for the National Health Service in London. He is now Director of Strategy and Commissioning of the NHS London Strategic Health Authority.
Corrigan was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.[3]