Parole Board members appointed

4 Sep 07

Four new legal and five lay members named

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has announced the appointment of four new legal members and five new lay members to the Parole Board for Scotland.

The new legal members are:

Aileen Devanny, a solicitor with North Lanarkshire Council and an accredited community mediator. She is holds a number of ministerial appointments, including legal member of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland and chairperson of the Scottish Charity Appeals Panel and the Rent Assessment Panel.
Charles Milne, who retired in July 2007 as a partner in Baird & Co, solicitors, Cupar. He has previously been a children's panel member, social security tribunals chairperson, council member of the Scottish Law Agents Society and chair of Cupar Community council.
David O'Donnell, formerly a solicitor in private practice and currently Professor of Legal Ethics and Professional Practice at the Robert Gordon University. Mr O'Donnell is Chief Executive of the Legal Defence Union and a legal member of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland.
Moira Ramage, who worked as a procurator fiscal for about 20 years before joining Lord Bonomy in his work on reforming High Court procedure. She was the Scottish Executive's bill team leader for the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) (Amendment) Act 2004, district procurator fiscal for Greenock from April 2004 to June 2007, and appointed as legal assessor to the General Medical Council in July 2007.

The new lay members are:

Francis Brown, a trained social worker and retired local authority executive, now a consultant in health and social care;
George Keith Carruthers, who retires as a deputy divisional commander with Strathclyde Police in October 2007;
Andrew Jones, who works in the advertising and marketing industry and is also a member of the children's panels and the Dunbartonshire Economic Forum;
Jo Knox, a former depute chief inspector for the Social Work Services Inspectorate, who has recently worked as a consultant on a number of criminal justice social work projects; and
David Stewart, a career civil servant who retired in 2007 and whose experience includes head of children's panel policy branch, and head of Judicial Appointments and Finance Division in the Courts Directorate.

The appointments run from 3 September 2007 (5 November in Mr Carruthers' case) to 31 July 2014.