Paul Horrocks, editor of the Manchester Evening News, is to become an editorial member of the Press Complaints Commission.

He will take up his post on October 1 following the retirement of Alison Hastings, who until recently was editor of the Newcastle Evening Chronicle.

Paul has had a long career in regional newspapers and has edited the Manchester Evening News since 1997.

He joined the paper as a general news reporter and became its crime correspondence in 1984, covering the whole of the Stalker affair and the re-opening of the Moors Murders excavation.

He was appointed news editor in 1989, assistant editor in 1994 and deputy editor in 1996. He is currently on the board of directors of the Society of Editors and has also served for a year on the editors’ Code of Practice Committee.

Two lay members are also to be appointed to the committee, following the retirement of Brian Cubbon and Lord Tordoff.

Professor The Lord Chan takes up his position with immediate effect and a further appointment will be announced in the next few weeks.

Paediatrician Lord Chan, who was appointed a peer in 2001, has been at the University of Liverpool since 1996 and is a former member of the Commission for Racial Equality.

Announcing the appointments, Professor Pinker said: “I am delighted to welcome two such distinguished individuals to the Commission.

“In many ways they personify the reasons that the PCC is so effective: strong editorial representation working alongside clearly independent lay members – who are in the majority – to provide robust, common-sense decisions on complaints brought by ordinary members of the public.

“I know they will make an extremely valuable contribution to our work and we look forward to working with them.”

Professor Pinker also paid tribute to the retiring members.

He said: “Between them, they gave us almost twenty years of service – and brought great wisdom and insight to our proceedings. We will miss them all – and I would like to thank them on behalf of all my colleagues for the tireless and indefatigable manner in which they discharged their duties.”

There are sixteen members of the Commission. Currently eight members – including the Acting Chairman Professor Pinker – are lay Commissioners, while seven are drawn from among the ranks of senior editors in the national and regional press, and from periodicals. One lay position is vacant.

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