Huge shifts in power and influence emerge from the 2016 HSJ100

There are 31 new entries, while 19 people see their positions in the ranking drop by 10 places or more and 11 see a similar rise.

• HSJ100 2016: Jeremy Hunt is the comeback kid
• Read the full HSJ100 list
• HSJ100 2016: How it was judged
• What is the secret to ‘breathing life into our local systems of care’?

The HSJ100 – supported this year by Veredus– was launched in 2005 and has become the benchmark by which to gauge the changing fortunes of the leading figures in the NHS and health policy. It is judged by a group of experienced health service leaders and attempts to paint as accurate picture as possible of who will exercise most power over the English NHS and health policy until September 2017.

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens retains his number one spot, but only narrowly pips the resurgent health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

There are significant shifts in the power balance between and within the leading NHS agencies and a notable rise of local leaders – especially those associated with the sustainability and transformation plans.

Among the eclectic group of new entrants are: chief secretary to the Treasury David Gauke, Brexit secretary David Davis, the chief inspector of the NHS’s new patient safety arm Keith Conradi, the Labour chair of the public accounts committee Meg Hillier, Health Foundation chief economist Anita Charlesworth and learning disability rights campaigner Sara Ryan.

Two thirds of the 100 are white men; 29 of the 100 are women, an increase of three on the previous year; and four have a BME background, one less than in 2015.

• Read HSJ editor Alastair McLellan’s commentary on the 2016 HSJ100