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The Secretary of State has announced the appointment of a Vice Chair of the Parole Board.

The Secretary of State for Justice has appointed His Honour Peter Rook QC as a judicial member of the Parole Board. In addition, the Chair of the Parole Board, Caroline Corby, has designated His Honour Peter Rook QC as the Board’s Vice Chair.

The Parole Board is an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). It works with its criminal justice partners to protect the public by risk assessing prisoners to decide whether they can be safely released into the community. It was established by the Criminal Justice Act 1967.

Parole Board Vice Chairs are approved by the Secretary of State. The Vice Chair will be expected to share in the leadership and governance of the Parole Board.

Appointments and re-appointments to the Parole Board are regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

Biography

His Honour Peter Rook QC was called to the Bar in 1973 and appointed a Queens Counsel in 1991. In June 2005 he was appointed a Senior Circuit Judge to sit at the Old Bailey retiring at the end of March 2017. He also sat as a judge in the Court of Appeal. He sat as a coroner between 2017 and 2019.

Peter was Chair of the Criminal Bar Association from 2002 until 2003. He was head of chambers at 18 Red Lion Chambers from 2002 until 2005. He is the co-author of a leading textbook now in its fifth edition ‘Sexual Offences: Law and Practice’.