Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland appointed
Date published:
Appointments to Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland.
Appointments to Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland.
Four re-appointments have been made to the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland (PCNI).
Mr John O’Neill and Mr Matthew Corkey have been re-appointed as Legal Commissioners with Dr Christine Kennedy and Dr Jeremy Kenney-Herbert re-appointed as Psychiatry/Psychology Commissioner.
PCNI is an independent body, critical to the process of deciding whether offenders who are eligible for parole are safe to be released back into the community. Public protection is always paramount, and robust risk assessment is the key to deciding on potential release.
These re-appointments bring the complement of serving commissioners to 37.
Justice Minister, Naomi Long expressed her gratitude to the Commissioners for their continued commitment and dedication to this important role. She said:
“The Parole Commissioners are an independent body of experienced people who make decisions on the release and recall of all life sentence and public protection sentence prisoners in Northern Ireland. They also make decisions on the recall and further release of determinate custodial sentenced prisoners who have been sentenced to 12 months or more.
“These roles are critical in providing independent decisions in the process of deciding whether offenders eligible for parole are safe to release back into the community. Public protection is always paramount and painstaking risk assessment is the key to making a robust decision.”
Notes to editors:
1, The Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008 renamed the life Sentence Review Commissioners (LSRC) as Parole Commissioners and introduced new protection sentences.
2. Commissioners are appointed under Schedule 4 of the 2008 Order. They serve in a fee-paid capacity and in accordance with the legislative requirements individual Commissioners have professional qualifications or experience in the legal, medical, criminological and rehabilitative fields. The commissioners are remunerated on a case-by-case basis. The Chief Commissioner is appointed from within the existing Commissioners.
3. The re-appointment process reflected the principles and practices of the Commissioner for Public Appointments Northern Ireland Code of Practice. Appointments were made on merit, and political activity plays no part in the selection process.
4. The new Commissioners do not hold any other public appointments in Northern Ireland.
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