The Prime Minister has asked Louise Casey to lead "a comprehensive review into boosting opportunity and integration to bring Britain together as one nation", which he hopes will ensure more people from ethnic and minority backgrounds feel they have a stake in society.

Ms Casey, a senior civil servant who has a background in the social welfare sector, was appointed to the position on the back of a series of recent high-profile roles.

In 2011 she became the director general of the Government's Troubled Families programme, which aimed to help the 120,000 most troubled families in England turn their lives around by this year through tackling the repeated patterns of poor parenting, abuse, violence, drug use, anti-social behaviour and crime.

In September last year she was appointed by former local government secretary Eric Pickles to head the independent inspection of children's services at Rotherham Council in the wake of the child sexual exploitation scandal and examine whether it covered up information about the abuse.

Her report, which was published in February this year, found Rotherham Council had widespread failings across its culture and services and was "not fit for purpose", leading to the council's political leaders resigning and Mr Pickles sending in government commissioners.

Prior to her role as the troubled families tsar Ms Casey was the Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses, taking up the role in March 2010.

Part of her remit was to promote the interests of victims and witnesses and encourage good practice in their treatment. She found that in many instances crime victims were treated poorly, and also suggested that trial by jury was unnecessary for many minor offences.

She resigned as Victims' Commissioner in October 2011 after she was drafted in to work with David Cameron to help deal with the aftermath of the riots.

Ms Casey began her career in the social welfare sector, working as deputy director for the homelessness charity Shelter from 1992 to 1999.

She was also director of the Home Office's anti-social behaviour unit, head of the cross-government Respect task force, tackling anti-social behaviour, and was later director general in the Home Office, heading the neighbourhood crime and justice group.

Outlining Ms Casey's role in leading the review, Home Secretary Theresa May told BBC Breakfast she would be "looking at what it is that we can do to ... achieve ambitions for young people in black and minority ethnic communities, to be able to ensure that their talents are being best used so that they can achieve to their absolute best.

"So looking at what is happening in schools, looking at what is happening inside communities, looking at what is happening in terms of employment - a really positive agenda.

"If you are going to be able to promote people's achievements, to be able to promote people's talents, we need to know what are the barriers that people are finding at the moment, and that is what Louise Casey is going to be looking at."