Ruth Runciman is Chair of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, and is Deputy Chair of the Prison Reform Trust.
From 1974-95, Ruth was a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs where she chaired several Working Groups including those that looked at AIDS and drug misuse, and the criminal justice system.

Ruth was Chair of the Independent Working Group on Drug Consumption Rooms: an initiative of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2004-06). This produced the Independent Inquiry into Drug Consumption Rooms in 2006.

She chaired the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, which produced the report “Drugs and the Law”. From 1994-1998 she was Chair of the Mental Health Act Commission.